I solemnly swear that I will change the past
by WholockPotterjay
Summary: Hi there guys, so this fanfic is after the battle of Hogwarts, George is called to McGonagall's office and is given the task to go back in time and change the past, by reading the Harry Potter books along with the Marauders and Lily, I know there have been many such fanfics already but I just loved the idea of doing something like this, I hope you like it and please review :D
1. Prologue

**Hi guys, so this is my second fanfiction so please don't be too harsh. Ok so, this is as I said already about George Weasley who is sent back in time to read the books with the Marauders and Lily, this is just a prologue, I will start with the actual book in the next chapter, where George actually gets to meet the Marauders**

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It was 3 months after the great battle of Hogwarts, and the castle was finally rebuilt, not a single sign left that there had been a battle there, or that the castle had once been a complete ruin. The only place where it was possible to see such remains was in the forbidden forest, where bits of stone and other parts of the castle that have been blown up still remain. These have been left there as a reminder and a as a symbol of those who died in the battle defending everything they loved. Professor McGonagall, newly instated headmistress of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry sat in her office, preparing to go down to the start-of-term feast, and the sorting ceremony. Down in the Great Hall, students of all ages were eager to start a new year at Hogwarts, the first years were all crossing the lake, and were as nervous as all the other students have been before the sorting.

Minerva just made to stand up and get the sorting hat when there was a knock on the door. The reason she was still in her office and not down in the Great Hall has just arrived.

"Come in," she said. And the next moment a tall red-headed man came in, it was very weird to see him on his own, without another man identical to him standing behind or next to him.

"I got your owl professor, saying you wanted to see me, and that it could be really important." said George.

"That's right Mr. Weasley; well I guess you're wondering why I called you here today," she said, as George nodded

"That is because I have a very important job for you, of course that is if you accept It." she said, "I believe there is a way in which we can avoid having to lose so many loved ones, in the tragic battle that we were involved a couple of months previously." George turned pale at the thought, he had remembered how in the battle, he had lost the one person that meant the world to him, his twin brother Fred. McGonagall, seeing his reaction decided to continue telling him the task, which would perhaps brighten his mood, although she knew how bad he must be feeling, having seen them together in her office for the past 7 years more than any other students.

"I have been able to get a time-turner from the ministry, and I thought that you would be the best person for the job of going back in time and retelling the story of Harry Potter to his parents and the rest of their friends, that is to say the rest of the Marauders. I believe that if they know what things will be like in the future, they will be able to change a few things and possibly avoid losing so many loved ones in the fight against Voldemort. The first thing being to get rid of one of their closest friends Peter Pettigrew, who was the main reason Harry lost his parents. Now if you agree to it, I'm sure you would be the best person to take on this job, what do you say, Mr. Weasley?" she said, sounding quite excited. George turned around for a second and then turned back again realizing there was no one there to share the excitement of the job with.

"I would do anything if it meant that Harry could have his parents and I could have Fred back!" There was obviously some colour back in his face and somewhat of an enthusiasm in his voice.

"Well then that's absolutely great, now, first of all, I have to warn you, this is quite a dangerous job and you mustn't reveal who you are, you can keep your name as being George Weasley, although you will be a cousin of the Weasley's that has been studying magic in a different country, but you decided to finish your last year at Hogwarts. Second of all the people who you tell the story to, they should be Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and no one else, they're the ones who can change everything and if anyone else gets involved in this, it could end up quite badly. I don't think it will be that hard reading these books in privacy, what could be tricky is getting Lily Evans to join the group for such a long time, given that at the beginning of their 7th year she hated James more than anything else, but I believe you can do that. Now, you will be taken to the Headmaster's office, on the first day of school, when you get there, the Hogwarts student will only just be arriving in the Hogwarts Express, I want you to give this letter here to the Headmaster, it will explain everything he needs to know, and he will be able to guide you from there. One more thing, you'll be able to get back to the present day at the end of the year, on the last day of school, by simply holding on to the time turner, since I have placed a charm on it that will help you get back without any further complications." While she said everything George was getting more and more excited about the task that he has been given, after all he will be able to meet the Marauder's, his and Fred's greatest role models.

McGonagall, then said in a very strict and calm voice, "George, I want you to finish reading all the books by the end of the year, it is very important that you do so, you must organize your time very well, I'm sure you would be able to do so, but just in case, a bit of advice is that if you read one chapter every day, you'll be just fine, and with some time to spare as well, so you have more than enough time, just make sure you fulfil your purpose there, oh yeah and whenever you're reading I want everyone I mentioned to be present, because every bit of information in these books is crucial for changing the future, do you understand?" she told him

"Of course I do professor; I solemnly swear that I will do everything that is possible of me to fulfil my duty in the past." George said in an enthusiastic voice

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, while you're gone time will seem to pass normally but when you come back, I don't there would have been more than a week that has actually passed, so you won't be missing out on much." McGonagall told him

"That's brilliant professor!"

"Well then, here you go the letter and the time turner. Good Luck Mr. Weasley, and don't make too much trouble, I have enough problems in the past, with the Marauder's as it is, without you enhancing their mischief!" she told him with a huge smile on her face.

"Now I can't promise you that professor, thanks anyway I'll try not to create too many problems but I can't promise you anything." And with that he disappeared. McGonagall then continued to the start of term fest, feeling hopeful and satisfied.

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**Ok, I know this was really short but it's just a prologue and the actual thing is gonna start in the next chapter. Thanks for reading, and please review :)**


	2. Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived

**So this is when they actually start reading the books, I hope you guys like it, I don't own any of the bolded text or any of the characters, these belong to our queen J. k . Rowling 3 I hope you like it**

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When George finally opened his eyes, since the spinning stopped he found himself in the exact same spot from which he left. He was in the Headmasters office, but instead of McGonagall sitting down at the desk in the middle of the room, was Dumbledore. It was weird seeing Dumbledore now again, after everything that has happened and after the story Harry had told him about Snape being good all along and everything.

"Good evening young man, how may I help you", came Dumbledore's voice from behind the desk.

"Hello professor Dumbledore, I'm George Weasley, you probably don't know me yet since I'm only going to be born this spring, but I've been sent here from the future by professor McGonagall to help change a few things that may have gone wrong around this part of time." George told him, although he was expecting Dumbledore to have a way different reaction, he simply said:

"Oh, I see, well then welcome Mr. Weasley, is there anything that I need to help you with?" he said calmly

"Umm, oh yeah, professor McGonagall told me to give you this." He said as he handed Dumbledore the letter. Dumbledore read the letter in silence and then told George:

"Alright, well then according to this your first task is to convince the intended readers, being the four troublemakers and Miss Lily Evans that their best friend Peter Pettigrew is a death eater. That I can help you with, since she also mentions that by now he's already been given the Dark mark and certain instructions. Well then I guess I'll be seeing him in my office later on, as for now, you may go down to the feast and try to get to know Mr Black, Mr Potter, Mr Lupin and Miss Evans, and also explain to them why their friend will be missing, also try to get them to trust you as much as possible. And after that you can go back to the dormitories with them, you'll find your trunk there with everything you need including the books. You'll be in the room with the other 3 boys that you'll be reading the books with, since Peter will not be staying around for much longer. Off you go now, I believe you know the way to the entrance hall, am I right?"

"Yes sir, you're absolutely correct, good bye!" he said and ran off down the marble stairs and out into the hallway. He thought that he would have to do some more explaining but apparently McGonagall had said everything that Dumbledore needed to know in her letter.

The school was just the same as it was when he left, it was amazing how hardly anything has changed in almost 20 years, even the great hall was exactly the same with all the beginning of term decorations and the house tables. The students had only started filling into the great hall, none of them looked familiar, and it was a bit strange being around so many unknown people, when before he used to know just about everyone who was in the Great Hall, whether personally or simply by seeing them around all day. A few moments later, four boys passed him, which looked exactly like the ones in the picture he'd seen on the wall in Sirius's bedroom at number 12 Grimmauld place. He sat right next to them and introduced himself as George Weasley. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, since some random stranger just sat next to them and started talking to them so he decided to continue.

"You're Peter Pettigrew," he said pointing at the short, rather cubby boy sitting to him "Dumbledore just said that he'd like to see you in his office before the feast, so you better hurry up." The boy just stared at him for a moment, looked at another one of the boys which was tall, quite handsome and with dark hair, which George recognized as a younger Sirius, then he left for the entrance hall.

"I've never seen you before around here, how did you get here?" the tall black haired boy asked.

"Now that, my friend, is a very long story" George told him as he started explaining them the whole reason he was there, as quietly as he could, so that the people around didn't hear him.

The three boys there just sat and listened, since George didn't let them interrupt. In the beginning their faces were all really similar, and they all looked really confused but as he continued explaining about Dumbledore they seemed to start believing him, or at least parts of what he said. George decided not to tell them about Peter until he actually got them to trust him, since telling them that their best friend is a death eater, is not exactly the sort of thing that would make them trust him.

"So, you're a Weasley and you came from the future, because McGonagall sent you to tell us about our own futures, and help us change it. That sounds weird, but believable, I guess. I personally believe you, but do you have any actual proof?" asked Lupin. George nodded and showed him the time turner, and also explained how it works. Lupin, who's heard of time-turners before and actually read about them, was really interested in examining it, so George didn't bother with trying to get it back any time soon.

"That's really amazing !" said Sirius "I'm Sirius Black, this here is James Potter and he is Remus Lupin, it's really nice to meet you !" as they shook hands, James asked him, "but where did Peter go ?". This was the thing George had wanted to keep for later, but perhaps it was better to tell them now and only show them the proof later.

"Ok, I know this sounds really stupid but we can go to Dumbledore's office later and you can see actual proof for that, but peter is a death eater, he joined you-know-who," George started saying but was interrupted by Sirius "You-Know-Who ? Is that Voldemort?" he said, as George continued, "Well, yeah in the future people are scared to say his name and there is a point in time where his name is actually turned into a Taboo, and anyone who says it is in a few seconds surrounded by Death Eaters. Now back to Peter, he's the reason why a lot of things happen in the future, and I can tell you that hardly any of them are actually nice, but you'll see when we read the books."

"So you're telling us that Peter is a Death Eater?" asked Lupin and George nodded. "but that can't be possible, we were with him just about the whole time since our first year, he's our best friend, he wouldn't have joined Voldemort, he's too much of a coward to go anywhere near him, and even if he did, we would have noticed after all we're with him all the time!" he said in an angrier voice

George simply responded, quite calmly "I knew you'd said that, but if you don't believe you can go straight to Dumbledore's office and see for yourself." Lupin actually started to get up, but that eventually became unnecessary, since Dumbledore entered the great Hall at that exact moment, and started heading for the four boys, and started telling them:

"I see you've already met George, well then I hope you'll trust him with the things he tells you, I surely do. He's here to help you make your own futures better along with many other people. I'm guessing you told them about Peter, right?" George nodded "Well, I'm really sorry to tell you that it's true, I saw it all for myself, the ministry will take over from here with Peter, as for now just enjoy the feast, for you'll have bigger things on your mind from now on than Peter, after all he'll be ok." And with a wink, he headed for the teacher's table at the end of the hall.

After the feast, they headed to the Gryffindor common room, where they decided that Lupin should be the one to tell Lily everything, since she trusted him more than any of the others. While they left Lupin to that, the 3 of them headed for the dormitories to wait for Lily and Lupin there. George saw that his trunk was already at the end of his bed, though he wasn't quite sure how McGonagall sent it there. Inside were all of his things along 7 books, of increasing sizes, he took one of the smallest ones, which was the first one, with the title of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone. At that moment Lily and Lupin entered the dormitory, and Lupin assured them that he'd told her everything and that she believed him although she wasn't too happy about having to spend so much time there with them.

They all sat down, each on their own bed except for Lily who sat on Lupin's, and decided that George should be the first to read.

**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone**

"Harry Potter, is he related to me?" asked James

"Well, I won't say anymore than yes, he is related to you, in what way, you'll find out quite soon."

**Chapter one**

**The boy who lived**

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What drills?" asked Sirius

"Muggle machines that they use to make holes in various things." Answered Lily

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours.**

"What sort of life is that I mean, seriously, why would anyone want to spend so much time spying on their neighbours, don't they have better things to do with their life?" asked James

"Well most muggles do, but Mrs Dursley here, we can say is an exception, she's probably the most boring muggle there is" said George

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. **

"Potters? There's nothing wrong with the Potters, I'm not exactly enjoying the story so far." Said James

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"Is that even a word?" asked Sirius

"Of course it's not, that just sounds stupid." Said Remus

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. **

"Well I'm not exactly your biggest fan either" James was getting angrier

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"That kid sounds really spoiled" said Lily, with a bit of concern in her voice

"You have no idea" said George

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window. **

"What are owls doing around muggles, and at that time of the day?" said Lily

"You'll see" said George

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.**

"Wow, that kid sounds really bad" said Remus, George just smiled and continued reading

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen, then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. **

"That is a bit weird for a cat" said Sirius

**As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"Wizards! But they're not supposed to wear cloaks around muggles, it's part of the statute of Secrecy!" said Lily

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. **

"Wearing a cloak doesn't make you a weirdo, cloaks are awesome!" said Remus

"Am I the only one who's really starting to hate these Dursley people?" asked Sirius

"Definitely not" said James, who until this moment has been unusually quiet

**They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it.**

Everyone seemed to be quite angry by now.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open- mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. **

"Of course they haven't muggles aren't supposed to see that many owls, and especially not during the day, the wizards are being really reckless." Said Remus

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"Just to be clear, that is called a normal morning?" asked Sirius

"For him, it is" replied George

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch was whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. **

**It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, Harry" **

"George, come on can you just tell me whether I'm amongst these Potters that they're talking about?" asked James

"Fine then, yes you are the Potter they're talking about, anyways you should find out soon enough anyways." Said George

"Wait, if you're Mr. Potter, that means you married someone, a girl accepted, she said, yes, high five Prongs!" Sirius said.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

"That's so mean; I mean how bad she can be. Come to think about it, Mrs. Dursley reminds me a bit of my own sister, but Tuney would never get this bad, she is mad at me for being a wizard, when she's not but she would never hate me this much" said Lily

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"Did he just say You-Know-Who's gone, that's Voldemort right? So he's dead?" Lily was very enthusiastic when she said it and everyone else in the room seemed to be exactly the same.

"Well, yeah that's basically what happened, but some people were saying he was just away hiding, too weak to come back or others thought he was dead."George told them, and decided to go on with the story before he gave away too much

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off. Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"That's it, I thought I didn't like that man but if he doesn't approve of imagination, then I more than hate him!" said Sirius, almost shouting it.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"Markings around the eyes, reading a map, are I the only one who's starting to think that is McGonagall?" asked James

"It does sound a bit like her, but what would she be doing in a muggle town, and especially around such muggles as the Dursleys?" said Remus

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. **

"hahaha, now I'm almost convinced that's McGonagall, I've gotten that look more times than I can actually count." Said Sirius.

"I bet no one's been in her office, and gotten that look more than me" said George and all of them started laughing.

"You know, I must say I envy Mr Dursley a bit" said Remus as he got some really aggressive looks from the people around "I mean, I would love to be able to try and shoo McGonagall away and not get detention" it took a couple of seconds before the laughter died out and they were finally able to continue reading.

**Was this normal cat behaviour? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. **

"Or at least what he believes to be normal behaviour" laughed Sirius

**When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious, and now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather, going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

"I bet wizards have something to do with these shooting stars as well, I understand that they're celebrating the fact that the greatest Dark Wizard has been defeated, but they should be a bit more careful !" said Lily

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

"Petunia ? Oh no, George please tell me that's not my sister" Lily looked quite pale at this moment

"Well, yeah she is, now, can you please stop asking me to tell you everything, I don't want to ruin every single surprise." George told them

"Oh I can't believe Tuney would do something like this, I know she wanted to be a witch too, but..." tears were gathering in her eyes, and she turned around from everyone for a few moments.

"If Mrs Dursley is Lily's sister, that means that..." Sirius got up from his bed, and so did James.

"Padfoot ! I married Lily, Lily Evans is my future wife!" James was shouting and doing a very weird dance around the room along with Sirius. Lily was still and shock and was staring at them, probably trying to find something to say against that, not believing that she would ever actually marry James Potter the stupid prat.

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

James could see tears streaming down Lily's face now and decided to go and comfort her, and surprisingly she didn't object like she usually did.

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."**

"HER CROWD? THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH HER CROWD!" Sirius was really angry now

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son, he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly. "What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?" "Harry, Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"There's nothing wrong with Harry, it's a great name" said James, and a bit of a grin appeared on Lily's face

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something. Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"Those muggles ! Lily you better talk to Petunia about this, because if I ever meet that git she is going to marry I think things might turn out a bit nasty." Said James.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on**

Everyone was too shocked at these words to say anything, none of them could believe that someone could possibly hate their own sister in such a way, and even if they did how could anyone hate Lily.

**- he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect them...**

And James said. "Well, he's wrong it's going to affect them and when I get my hands on them..."

**How very wrong he was.**

"Well, the first sentence about the Dursley's that I actually like," said Sirius

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"Why would McGonagall sit there for such a long time, that must be even more boring than living with the Dursley's, no, wait it can't" said Sirius

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. **

"I bet it's me, I haven't even been mentioned yet, therefore I have to come in the story sometime soon, both Lily and James have been mentioned, what if I'm the first to actually appear and be there ?" said Sirius

"I don't think it's you, after all what would you be doing on the Dursley's street all on your own?" asked Remus.

"Probably going to teach them a lesson," said Sirius

"I think it's James, after all he is the one the Dursley's would hate to see on their street right?" said Remus

**He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots.**

"That's Dumbledore ! but what would he be doing there, I though Dumbledore would have better things to do than go around Muggle streets after dark, especially one on which the Dursley's lived" said James

**His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"Just like I said" said James

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"Why would they hate Dumbledore, what did he ever do to them ?" asked Remus

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"Ok, I'm really confused right now, what's going on, what are McGonagall and Dumbledore both doing there?" said Remus

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again, the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.**

"That's so cool, I want one of those!" said Sirius

**If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**Come on, even we knew it was her and we only read about her, Dumbledore would have known it was her immediately." Said George.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"No one said you had to sit on a brick wall all day" said Sirius

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

"Even Dumbledore agrees with me" said Sirius, rather proudly

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no, even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"She's right, he's a nice person, I like him a lot but he should learn when to stop" said Remus

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"Eleven years, so it's three more years until this whole things is going to stop ?" asked Lily

"That's right !" answered George

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

Everyone started laughing at that, then James said, "That's just plain Dumbledore, you're talking about a serious subject such as the defeat of the greatest Dark Wizard and in the middle of the conversation he offers you a lemon drop".

**"A what?"**

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"**

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.**

"Of course not, Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of our day, he's the only person You-know-who's actually afraid of." Said Remus.

**"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

"Just like I said" said Remus

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"That's just because Dumbledore would never use such powers in the way You-Know-Who did." Said Remus

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

Everyone was laughing after trying to visualize such a scene.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

"I'm actually wondering that as well, what or who actually defeated him ?" asked Lily

George simply continued reading.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

Everyone was grinning after that.

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead. "**

The expressions on Lily's and James's faces was simply indescribable, both of them were frozen, not a single movement could be seen, every single bit of colour drained from their faces at that moment, Lily was sitting next to James, he had his hand around her shoulders and both of them seemed to be staring at something that was most definitely not in this room.

"Prongs is dead?" Sirius said quietly

"That can't be possible, why would You-Know-Who go after you and Lily" said Remus

The room was completely quiet for a few minutes and George didn't dare continue reading while the information sunk in, then he continued,

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. "Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it...**

**Oh, Albus..." Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But – he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone.**

"At least my son is still alive" The words Lily said were hardly audible

"But how did he survive the killing curse, no one, not even the most powerful wizards have ever survived the killing curse" said Remus

"Well, he is my son" said James trying to pull a small grin but failing.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"We would all like to know that" said Sirius

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know." Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes, beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch.**

**It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"NO" shouted Lily "They can't leave him with them, before, I might have agreed to leave my son with Petunia, but not after, after..." she wasn't able to finish her sentence, but everyone knew what she was trying to say, they couldn't leave Harry there with those people.

"What about me and Moony, why didn't they leave them with us we would be able to take better care of them than those muggles" said Sirius

"Speaking of which, where are the two of us ?" said Remus

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Yeah, Dumbledore, listen to Minerva, she knows what she's talking about !" said James

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter, he expects Harry to know everything from a letter, I bet they won't even give him the letter, they hate anything that has to do with the Wizarding world more than anything !" Lily was starting to sound more angry than scared or shocked now, but those two elements definitely were not missing from her voice.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"Yes but not with those muggles!" said James

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy** **getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"He better not be" said Lily, sounding really angry

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"Oh, well that's better, I trust Hagrid a lot" she said

**"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky, and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Cool, I want a flying motorcycle!" said Sirius sounding more excited than anyone else looked right now.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild – long** **tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were** **like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"THAT'S MY MOTORCYCLE, I'M GOING TO HAVE A FLYING MOTORCYCLE IN THE FUTURE !" Sirius was jumping up and down on his bed by now, and his attitude seemed to brighten up everyone else's mood a bit as well.

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

"Awww" Lily put her head down on James's shoulder, which had only happened before in James's most beautiful dreams.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"That's probably where the curse hit him" said Remus

**"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall. "Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever." "Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

"Dumbledore should know that some things should be kept to yourself" said Sirius

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house. "Could I - could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"**Hagrid really cares about him, I trust him even more now" Lily said**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead- an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

Lily hid her face on James's shirt and he could see tears streaming down her face.

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"That's definitely not a good sign, Dumbledore really cares about us, and so does McGonagall, I knew they liked us but this is just really nice" said James

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

"I'm gonna get my bike back !" Sirius said enthusiastically, getting an angry look from James and Remus.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. **

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"That's it," said George, and closed the book, "the first chapter"

"I think it's going to be great reading all these books after all" said Sirius

"You're only saying that because you're finally mentioned and you have a flying motorcycle, but I agree, it will be great reading about Harry." Said Remus

James and Lily shared a look, and without another word except for good night, she headed off for the girls dormitories. This was a lot to take in, she will marry James Potter, have a son, get killed at a young age, and her sister will hate her. She stayed up thinking about these things a while and then finally fell asleep after a couple of minutes, tomorrow she will continue to hear about her son's life even though she won't be able to be involved in it.

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**So this is it, the first chapter, I hope you liked it and please review and tell me what you think, you can of course suggest some things that you think I should add to the story, I was also thinking of adding another character from the future to come and read along with George, so you can suggest what character you would like me to add, I will also be adding a few things that the characters do in between reading the chapters, such as pranks they play or their classes, stuff like that. I'll put up the next chapter as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow, but I can't promise anything except for the fact that it will definitely be up in less than a week.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Vanishing glass

**Hi guys, here's the next chapter, I hope you like it. I don't own any of the characters or the bolded text, thanks for reading and please review.**

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The next morning, Remus was the first to wake up amongst the Marauders, the other three boys were all fast asleep, and therefore it was up to him to make sure they all got to class on time. It was always up to the first one who woke up to wake the others on time, and they each had their own way of doing it, James would use a spell to magnify his voice and start screaming at the others, and Sirius would usually pour a glass of water on one of them and their scream would wake up the others. Remus came up with a different way almost every week, today he decided to use a spell they once heard Snape use, "levicorpus" it was always really fun to see someone hanging upside down from the ceiling. He got his school robes on, and went into action. Two minutes later James and George could probably be heard from all the dormitories in their area, cursing Remus for waking them up like that, Sirius who Remus had managed to miss somehow was rolling on the floor laughing at the other two.

After about a minute of laughing at the other two, Sirius and Remus used the counter-spell and let them down, and even James and George got over being mad at Remus and were laughing about it during breakfast. George would also have to attend classes along with the others or else he would attract too much attention. People were already talking about the new ginger 7th year, which no one's ever seen before therefore it would get a bit suspicious if he didn't even attend classes. Only Remus had ancient runes, while the rest of them had a lesson off, which they decided to spend in the common room, while George told them more about the things he and Fred had come up with for their joke shop. It was a lot easier for him to talk about the joke shop and various pranks now that he knew that Fred wouldn't have to die if he managed to complete his task.

They all had charms the first lesson, after which double potions and then double transfiguration, being the first lessons of the year they weren't too bad, except for the fact that they got an essay to write from both McGonagall and Slughorn. Sirius wasn't too happy about getting homework from the very first day of school and kept moaning about it all the way back to the common room, and ignoring everything that Lupin was telling him about this being their N.E.W.T year and that he should get used to this much work.

The common room was packed with Gryffindors chatting excitedly about their holidays or starting up on the homework that they already got. Even in such a crowded room it was easy to spot Lily Evans, her being the only ginger amongst her group of 7th year friends which were all sitting in a less crowded corner of the common room. This time James decided to go and tell her to join them in their dormitory to continue reading but as he headed for her, she stood up and he was more than grateful for her action since he wasn't really looking forward to taking her away from her friends and start any sort of rumours.

When they entered the boys' dormitory, the other people were already seated each on their own bed, and talking cheerfully to one another. They hardly noticed James and Lily coming in, and sitting down on James's bed, until Lily asked who was going to read the next chapter.

"I want to read first!" said Sirius "Perhaps I'll be mentioned again along with my flying motorcycle"

George threw the book over to Sirius as he found the page of the second chapter and started reading.

**Chapter two**

**The vanishing glass**

"Is that what I think it is ?" asked James "accidental magic ! Harry's probably already doing magic!"

"Could you let him actually start reading, and not interrupt after two sentences?" said Lily

"fine" said James

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too, yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"Well isn't that such a nice way to wake up!" said James sarcastically

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. **

"That's my motorcycle, I knew I'd be mentioned again!" Sirius was really excited, and everyone else was having second thoughts to letting him read.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

**His aunt was back outside the door. "Are you up yet?" she demanded. "Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Well if you want everything perfect for that little brat of yours on his birthday why not do it yourself, and why would she make Harry do the cooking, that's just outrageous !" said Lily

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door. "Nothing, nothing..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"WHAT?! THEY MAKE HIM SLEEP IN A CUPBOARD! THOSE STUPID MUGGLES, WHY WOULD PETUNIA EVER AGREE TO SUCH A THING? MY SON SLEEPING IN A CUPBOARD!" Lily was screaming, her face was twisted in a very angry expression, Sirius decided he should continue reading, because he couldn't believe it either that they would actually make a kid sleep in a cupboard under the stairs.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

This time James started, "So they're filthy rich, and they can but their son all these things but my son still has to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs, oh when I find out who this Mr Dursley that your sister will marry is, I swear he won't even..." but he didn't have to finish because judging by the looks on everyone's faces they all knew what fate Mr Dursley would have if James got his hands on him, after reading all this.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, **

Lily looked like she was going to burst out crying any second now, whether from anger or feeling sad about Harry, none of them knew.

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast. Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. **

"That is the one thing that is in a way my fault, and no, it's not because of the cupboard, it's the genes son, get used to it" said James

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. **

"He sounds so much like James, but he has Lily's eyes" said Remus calmly.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"He likes his scar? That actually sounds a bit weird" said Sirius

"It seems he liked his scar before, but one thing is for sure, he hated his scar ever since I've known him, which is when he got to Hogwarts" replied George

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"Car crash? They didn't even tell him how we died? That's just revolting, the kid has the right to know why he has no parents!" said Lily angrily

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"Yeah... my fault again, and he should really stop trying because whatever he does to it, nothing will change, it will stay exactly the same, I've learned that the hard way" James said

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel**

"yeah right" said Sirius

**- Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone started laughing so hard at that, even Lily, it took a couple of minutes before the laughter died out and George was finally able to say. "My respect for Harry just grew so much after reading that, I never knew he was this awesome, not even Fred and I thought about that expression when we saw him"

"You saw him, why didn't you do anything to him, he definitely deserved at least a punch in the face" said Sirius

"Actually we played a prank on him, but I won't ruin it just yet, you'll see I think it's in the third book, anyways the result was awesome!" replied George

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Now that really is a spoiled brat, I didn't even get that many presents for my seventeenth birthday, and just about all my relatives got me at least one present !"said James

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

Everyone laughed at that "that's a smart move Harry!" said Sirius

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."**

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"A ten year old who can't even count ? What have these people done to the poor kid?" said Remus

"And all the nicknames, sweetums, popkin, duddy, that alone is bad enough, I might actually be sorry for this kid, but then again he uses Harry as his punch bag and treats him in the way he does, so nah he's still a little brat." Said Lily

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

"And Harry still has to sleep under the stairs, I mean come on, if they can afford all that for their own kid, how much more can it cost to have one extra bedroom?" said James

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"He has a name you know!" said Lily

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Aww poor Harry, no one should ever have to go through that" said Sirius

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"hahaha poor kid, I would feel that way too" said Remus

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"hmph" said Lily

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?" "On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. "And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Oh come on, it's not like he'll blow up the house" said Lily "the kid just wants some time away from you people"

"I don't think she'll let him, but it was a nice try" said Sirius

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car..."**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..."**

Lily shook her head in disbelief.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

*cough* "spoiled" *cough* said Sirius

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

Everyone started laughing again "Dinky Duddydums, now that's just more than hilarious !" said Sirius while still trying to stop laughing and continue reading.

**Don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"There goes another person I hate from the first minute they appear in the story" said James

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,**

"wow I'd hate to be that close to him" said Sirius

**"I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"What funny business could be so bad that they'd lock him up in that cupboard until Christmas, and anyways doesn't the kid go to school?" asked James.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly.. But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Accidental magic, Petunia should know about it, after all she grew up with me doing all these things like making flowers bloom when I held them in my hand or landing safely after jumping from very high up on a swing" said Lily

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

"At least he goes to school, but it's not fair that he gets bullied like that" said James with a sad expression on his face.

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"That doesn't make any sense why would they lock him up for something that basically wasn't even his fault, he doesn't know how to control his magic yet!" said Lily angrily.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls)**

"eww, why would anyone ever buy that in the first place, it's so ugly" said Lily

**- The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"good" said James "at least they have a light bit of common sense"

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"Does that mean he apparated there? That's really advanced accidental magic! I guess he was really scared and desperate to get away from Dudley's gang to do that." Said Remus

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"I have a feeling that something's going to go bad" said Lily

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"MOTORCYCLES!" shouted Sirius excitedly, as everyone else was thinking the exact same thing, if there are any more motorcycle's mentioned someone else is going to read instead of Sirius.

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them. I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Oh, he shouldn't have said that, they hate magic so much even that would get them angry, a dream!" said Lily

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"Dangerous ideas from dreaming, yeah right!" said James

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"Those are not that bad, I actually like them a lot" said Lily

"At least they got him something, thank god for the nice ice-cream lady" said Remus

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

Everyone was laughing again, while George was trying to say "first a pig and now a gorilla, I love the things Harry compares people to"

"Too bad he didn't through him into the crocodile pit, now that would've been real entertainment" said Sirius

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

"good thinking, and in this case it's good for both Harry and Dudley, because if they started hitting him I bet one of them would end up in the lion's den or the rhinoceros pit or somewhere" said Remus

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. **

"Harry actually got really lucky that day, he got to do so many things that he normally wouldn't even dream of doing" said Sirius

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Oh" said Sirius, "well something bad was bound to happen"

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons., Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.**

"Oh come on, the one time a snake can actually do some good in the world and it's not in the mood for it" said Sirius

**In fact, it was fast asleep. Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. **

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"That's just stupid, how is he expecting the snake to move by tapping on its glass, and anyways how is Dudley expecting his father to just magically make the snake move, the snake will move when it wants to, not when every spoiled kid makes their parents wake it up" said Sirius

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"He's such an unselfish kid" said Lily

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. It winked. **

"Do snakes usually do that?" asked James

"That's definitely not normal snake behaviour" answered Remus

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

**"I get that all the time.**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"How did?... what just?... he can't be a parselmouth can he? I mean how did the snake understand what he just said?" asked Lily confused.

"Maybe he just imagined the snake nodding, I mean snakes don't nod, do they?" said James

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

"Oh my Merlin, he's actually talking to it, but how's that possible?"said Lily

"Maybe he is a parselmouth, but where did he get it from neither James or Lily are parselmouths, right?" asked Remus, as Lily and James both nodded

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

**"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

"Oh Merlin, it's not good that someone saw him, he'll get in so much trouble" said Lily

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"I bet Harry did something accidentally again!" said Sirius excitedly

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

"The vanishing glass, that's why the chapter's called that" said Remus

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

Everyone was laughing again except for Lily who was still concerned about what would happen to Harry.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. **

"Those brats!" said Lily angrily.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"NO" James shouted "you shouldn't have told them that, Oh, Merlin he's going to get into so much trouble for that"

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"Well he has tactics, you can't contradict that" said Sirius

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. **

"How can he remember that he was only a year old when it happened!?" said James

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

"hahaha wizards ! He must be really famous in the Wizarding world, Dumbledore was right" said Sirius

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"They should be more careful, then again they just met the famous Harry Potter, I bet that's the only thing they're all thinking" said Remus

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's it, this was amazing, we should read another one today, since I don't think James and I can tomorrow we have Quiditch try-outs" said Sirius

"I agree with Sirius" said Lily, and James said "This has got to be the first time that has happened!" everyone started laughing. "well it's the first time he's actually said something smart and that makes sense" said Lily

"Actually, before we go on, can we take a small brake and Remus and I go down to the kitchens to get us a snack?" asked Sirius

Lily sighed "fine, but be fast"

"Yay, let's go Remus" Sirius said, and the next second they were off.

* * *

**Ok, so this was the second chapter, I will start the next chapter with a bit of Jily since I love the two of them so much and they finally get to be alone while the others are off getting food. The next chapter should be up soon, I'll be working on it for the rest of the day, but I can't promise an exact date for it. I hope you liked it so far and please please review cuz I love all of your reviews and they inspire me to keep on writing XOXO**


	4. Chapter 3: Letters from no one

**Hi again guys, so this is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it :)**

* * *

"Do you think we can really change the future?" Lily asked, breaking the silence a couple of minutes after the other boys left.

"I don't know, perhaps after we read these books we'll be able to see what we did wrong and somehow avoid doing it in reality, or well, again." James answered

"And what if we don't manage, what if we'll get killed by You-Know-Who ?" she asked him

"For that to happen you will have to accept my marriage proposal first, so getting killed isn't exactly the first thing that should be on your mind" he said with a huge grin on his face

"I'm serious Potter, what if we die and our son will end up living with those horrible people?"

"First of all those horrible people are your sister and her husband, and second of all now that we know what can happen we'll make sure it doesn't, we won't get killed, and we'll raise our son just like any other family, I promise that after we get out of Hogwarts, I will do everything I can to make sure we get to grow old together and live a long and happy life together." Lily had never heard James talk like that before; everything he'd ever said was mean or attention seeking. Perhaps people do change, and James will be the one that she'll say yes to eventually.

"Thanks, that was very nice" she told him, as she hugged him and gave a him a small kiss on the cheek. James was going to say something but she never got to hear what he was going to tell her because at that moment Sirius and Remus came back into the dormitory.

"Back already boys?" Lily asked them

"There was no way we could get to the kitchens, I'm guessing something happened since there's teachers patrolling every corridor, we were hardly able to get back to the common room without being seen." Said Sirius

"I wonder what happened actually, even Flitwick was going around and he seemed pretty concerned about something" said George who'd only just entered the dormitory.

"I heard some of the sixth year girls talking about a few people planning to set a couple of stink bombs all around the school, they got about 20 people to join them, they said the plan was pretty good and everything." Said Lily

"Oh yeah, I heard about that, they asked us to join them, but it didn't sound too exciting, and I bet some of them will get caught, you should never include so many people in a plan this risky" said Sirius

"you know, we should go down to the common room later and see how it worked out" said James

"Yeah, we'll go after this chapter, the real problem is that we didn't get any food!" said George

"Yeah, I don't know how I'll survive another entire chapter without any food," said Sirius

"Well, we still have some left over sweets from the Hogwarts Express, and you just had dinner, you can't possibly be hungry already." Said Remus

"Those words make you sound like you don't know Padfoot at all." Said James

"While you're done with the discussion on food, can we go on with the next chapter, it's getting kind of late and we still have classes tomorrow" said Lily

"Typical Lily, stop an important conversation on food to remind us about school" said Sirius

"Anyways... who wants to read next?" asked James

"I will, I just hope we won't have to hear about the Dursleys for much longer, I'm getting really sick of them" said Lily, then Sirius passed her the book from his bed.

**Chapter three**

**The Letters from No one**

"I think Harry will finally get his Hogwarts letter!" said Sirius excitedly

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Aww, the poor lady" said Lily

"I would think that too, then again she tortures Harry by making him look at photos of cats whenever he has to stay with her, so I think she deserved it." Said Sirius

"Come on now, she didn't deserve it, maybe Petunia or her husband, but not Mrs. Figg" said Lily

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"If those are the criteria used to chose the leader of a group, then that means I'm the leader of the Marauders, bow to me my minions" said Sirius, while standing up and sounding very fond of himself.

Lily laughed and then told him "well at least you admit to being the stupidest around here"

"Way to ruin my moment Lily" said Sirius as he sat back down on his bed.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting.**

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. **

"At least they let him out of the house" said James

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.**

"No he's not, what is this book talking about? Harry's going to Hogwarts!" said Sirius

"Of course he is, but he didn't get his letter yet, he doesn't even know about Hogwarts yet, I'm pretty sure Petunia didn't tell him about that, after all she didn't even tell him how we died" said Lily

**Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"We'll see who's laughing when Harry gets his letter!" said Sirius

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

"I think the toilet might be sick after having Dudley's head stuffed in it" said Sirius as everyone started laughing

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"hahaha, that's one smart move Harry" said James and everyone started laughing again

"You know, Harry's never told us that much about his life before Hogwarts, all we know was that it was quite miserable, he never told us about the amazing come backs he came up with" said George and James had a proud look on his face but didn't dare say anything, at least not while Lily was there.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Fine, she earned it, I feel sorry for her because Dudley knocked her over in the beginning of the chapter" said Sirius "and he even got to eat chocolate!"

"That tasted badly" said Lily, and Sirius responded "first of all, it's chocolate and no matter how old it is, chocolate still tastes amazing, and second of all, I bet Harry doesn't get too many occasions to eat chocolate, especially not with Dudley around, so he most definitely enjoyed it"

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. **

"eww, that sounds really horrible, why would a school have that as their official uniform?" said Lily, then James said "I can't believe I was complaining about the Hogwarts robes."

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"what?" said both James and Lily at the same time. "If there is someone who needs training for later in life with knobbly sticks, that person is most definitely not Dudley, especially not with Harry around" said James

"Oh, I can't believe it, it's not like it was bad enough for Harry with Dudley using him as a punch bag all the time, now he's going to become a poking bag as well" said Lily looking quite depressed.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. **

"Handsome and grown-up, yeah right, I bet a hippo in a tutu looks more handsome and grown-up" said Sirius as the others started laughing

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

Everyone was laughing again, as they were trying to imagine themselves having to watch Dudley parade around in his new uniform.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"Come on, anyone that came in the kitchen and saw that would have been wondering what it is" said Remus

**"Your new school uniform," she said. Harry looked in the bowl again.**

"Thank god Harry's going to Hogwarts, and won't have to wear that to school." Said James

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

Everyone started laughing again. "I never actually realized how funny Harry is" said George

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Wouldn't it just be easier to get him some new clothes, I mean she would even go through all that trouble and dye those clothes gray just so that she didn't have to get Harry anything new" said Lily then sighing.

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

"Don't worry son, you'll be wearing brand new robes, just like everyone else" said James

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. **

"No way, did he just make Ickle Dudleykins do something as hard as getting the mail?" said Sirius

**"Make Harry get it."**

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

"Of course, can you think what could have happened if Dudley actually got up, walked all the way to the door, bent down and walked back again, it would be like the end of the world or something" said Sirius and everyone was laughing again.

**"Make Dudley get it."**

"It's not going to work," said James

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

"What? No, Harry just go and get the mail" said Lily

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.**

"Harry's Hogwarts letter!" said James

"It's just a letter for Harry, it doesn't necessarily have to be his Hogwarts letter, "said Remus

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives - he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive Little Whinging Surrey**

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

"I was right" shouted James enthusiastically "and Remus with all his logic was wrong!"

"I never gave a firm answer I just thought of other possibilities"

"Just accept that you were wrong"

"Fine, I'm sorry I made a wrong guess"

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Wait, no way, why did he just take his letter to the kitchen, he should have read it in the hallway, of I don't think they're going to let him read it." Said Lily

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. -." "Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"Oh, when I get my hands on that kid..."said James

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"oh" Lily said in a very sad voice, as she hid her face in James's shirt and passed him the book.

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"You go Harry!" said Sirius

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

The room was quiet for a few seconds while everyone imagined uncle Vernon turning all those colours, then grins appeared on all of their faces.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

Lily sighed.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly. **

"Oh shut up, it's not even your letter" said James.

"**I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

"He deserves the right to read his own letters!" shouted Lily, and then asked James for the book back so that she would finish reading.

"Yes he deserves it, although with these muggles around, that doesn't mean he'll get it" said Remus

**Harry didn't move.**

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted. "Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; **

James and Sirius both started a cheer of "Go Harry!"

**Dudley won,**

"ohhh, come on!" said both James sand Sirius at the same time

**so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"At least he still got to hear them" said Lily

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"That you stupid muggle is called magic" said Sirius

"In the muggle world it's called stalking" said Remus

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"**

"They won't take no for an answer, especially not when it's Harry Potter we're talking about" said Remus

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...**

"Believe me, they won't give up that easily, they're probably going to send more letters or something" said James

**"But -"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"Magic? They wanted to stamp out magic out of him?" asked Sirius

"I thought Petunia would know better than that after she's spent her entire childhood with me" said Lily

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"Whoa, did someone die or something, how could the old git take his time and actually go and talk to the boy who lives under their stairs?" said Sirius sarcastically

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

**"No one, it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

"WHAT?" everyone gasped, and then James said "why would he burn it, that was Harry's ticket to freedom!"

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

"Exactly, you tell him Harry!" said Sirius

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"Sometimes it's better not to smile at all than force a smile, this is one of those times" said Lily

**"Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

"OH, SO HIS SON HAS TWO BEDROOMS BUT MY SON HAS TO SLEEP IN A CUPBOARD!"shouted James

"I'm so going to talk to Petunia about this, the next time I see her, why would she ever treat my son in such a horrible way!"

"Guys, you're missing out on the point, they are being nice to Harry, why are they being nice to him? I know it's a good thing but it's very unusual"

"They're probably doing it because they don't want other people knowing how they treat Harry, if the word got out that they made him sleep in a cupboard and do everything they make him do, it would ruin their reputation, and now that they think the Hogwarts people are watching them they're going to try to be nicer to him" said Lily

**"Why?" said Harry.**

"Harry, never look a gift horse in the mouth, just accept it" said James

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. **

Lily and James both sighed, probably too angry to say anything.

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled;**

"Spoiled!" sang Sirius

**There was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. **

"No way, Ikle Duddlykins has books?!" said Sirius

**They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Oh, that's better, for a moment I thought he actually read, everything's ok now, everything's back to normal" said Sirius

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..."**

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

Everyone was grinning again.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. **

"That's a little too late, but at least he realized his mistake" said James

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -'"**

"I thought he also wanted to read it, and then again he would have needed to think before he spoke, which would have been way too hard" said Sirius

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. **

"Go Harry get the letter before him!" shouted James without much enthusiasm in his voice, probably because he already knew how small the chances of Harry getting the letter would be.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley - go - just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

Everyone's mood seemed to lighten up a bit at that.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door -**

"Oh, I thought he would have a better plan than that, the letters don't even come by post, why does he think they have no stamp, they're sent by owl!" said Lily

"Come on Lily, he doesn't even know about owls, that's actually a really good plan for someone who doesn't know the letters come by owl" said Remus

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. **

"And the plan fails miserably" said Sirius

**He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.**

**Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"Isn't he getting a bit obsessed with keeping Harry away from those letters, I mean, not even going to work, that's a bit exaggerated." Said Remus

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

"That's just like saying that after McGonagall couldn't get us to stop misbehaving in our first year she would've given up by now." Said James

"Yeah, McGonagall is not one to give up on something, especially getting the students to school" said George

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." **

"Wow, the woman's got some sense in herself, I guess she might resemble Lily a tiny bit" said James, earning a warm look and a smile from Lily

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"Thank Merlin for that!"Said Sirius

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

"Told you they won't give up!" said James

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"I think he's going a bit fanatical" said Lily

"Just a bit?" asked James

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"I wonder how they got the letters in there, I think there's more than owls working on the job to get the owls delivered" said Remus

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -"**

"No muggle post on Sundays, owls work 24/7" said James with a wicked smile on his face

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

"Get one and run Harry!" shouted Sirius

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

"I have a feeling that leaving the house won't do it." Said Lily

"Of course it won't, I got my letter while we were on vacation at the sea side" said Remus

"I got it while we were over at our aunt's house for 2 weeks" said George

"I wonder where they're going to go" said James

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"Not going to work" sang Sirius

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Oh Merlin, what's going to happen to him, someone do something he's going to die, if he doesn't play on the computer soon!" said George and everyone started to laugh again

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

Everyone laughed as they tried to imagine uncle Vernon's face when he heard that.

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"Yes Dudley Daddy's gone mad, you know this kid might actually have some brains, even though it took him this long to notice, he figured it out!" said Sirius

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. "**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

"Oh Happy Birthday Sweet heart" said Lily, and Sirius started singing Happy Birthday, as everyone else joined in as well. All of them were laughing by the end of that and it took a couple o f moments before the laughter died out and Lily could continue reading.

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain; there was no television in there.**

"Wow, I still can't believe they would actually agree to stay on that thing" said George "They're really not the sort of people to cope well with that"

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shrivelled up. **

"Probably wishing you had kept some of the letters now, aren't you?" said Sirius cheerfully

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

Everyone laughed at that.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"Owls can deliver their letters through just about any weather, except for perhaps snow, there's always quite a problem with delivering the mail through a snow storm, which happen quite a lot around Hogwarts during the winter" said Remus

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"Filthy muggles" Lily started but she didn't have to finish her sentence, everyone already knew what she was trying to say.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

"Probably in Hogwarts sitting in her office or sleeping in her room" said George

"Knowing McGonagall, she's probably still in her office" said Sirius

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"Being positive about a really horrible situation, which he came up with by being negative, not sure what to say about that one" said James

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds...**

"I think something's going to explode or at least happen after this countdown" said James

**twenty ... ten... nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

"Yes you should!" said Sirius excitedly

**- three... two... one... **

Lily counted that really quietly.

**BOOM. **

Lily shouted as she said it, and everyone jumped up from their beds, and then started laughing, but they stopped quite quickly since they were all curious to see what had happened.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"That's it" said Lily, as she handed the book back to George

"Great, let's go down to the common room and see what happened" said George, and they all sat up and headed for the common room

* * *

**Ok, so this is it, I hope you liked it, I will write a bit more of what happened in the hallways in the next chapter, but that will be quite short, since the Marauders are planning something great for themselves. Please review and tell me what you thought :)**


	5. Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys

**Hi guys, so there's been a few reviews asking about Fred, and George's missing ear, how come the marauders didn't say anything about that, well I'll have Geeorge explaining everything about Fred and what happened in the chapter in which they appear, so in two chapters. Anyways, here's the next chapter, I hope you like it **

Chapter 5

The common room was almost empty except for a couple of people. They were all sitting in front of the fire, in a circle and discussing something, hardly any of them noticed the new comers. They all sat down around the circle, wherever there was an empty space. Lily sat right next to James, and next to her was another girl who she recognized as a 6th year, Genevieve Sannings, who she'd met once while she was heading up to the common room after dinner, in Lily's second year. Genevieve had gotten lost, that being her first week at Hogwarts, and the two have gotten along quite well ever since.

"So how did it go, did you manage to place the stink bombs?" asked Sirius

"Of course we did, that was the easy part, from what I've heard all the bombs were placed safely, getting away without being caught was the tricky part, and not everyone managed," answered another one of the 7th year boys, who Lily recognized as being Dylan Craig. He was one of the best in the class, and just about every seventh year though that he should have been made head boy instead of James, no one actually knew how James ended up being head boy, but no one dared to question Dumbledore's decision.

"Who got caught?" asked James

"No one from Gryffindor, but two of the Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw were caught right after their bombs went off. They had some of the trickiest ones, but they offered for them. The two Hufflepuffs were doing Slughorn's office, and the Ravenclaw was down, near the Slitherin common room." Said another boy, who was in his 5th year at Hogwarts.

"Three out of 20 people, that's actually really good, I must congratulate you on a well laid out plan!" said Sirius enthusiastically

"There were actually 25 people, and thanks a lot, anyways you should have been there to see the looks on the teacher's faces, they were precious, but best of all was Filch," said Frank

"No way, did you put a stink bomb outside his office as well?" asked George

"umm yeah we did, it was hard getting rid of the cat though, it chased me and Carl almost up to the common room, but we lost her on a corridor with another stink bomb." Said the 5th year

"Anyways, that's just about everything that happened, now your turn," he turned to George "Can you tell us some more about yourself, everyone's talking about the mysterious new Weasley, it would be awesome if we were the first to know about you!" said Dylan

"umm, yeah sure I guess, well I think you all know the Weasley family right?" he asked as some of the people nodded "well they have two sons and Molly's pregnant with twins now, and I'm another one of the Weasley cousins. I've been studying at a different school until now, and my parents decided that I should finish my last year at Hogwarts."

"George here is one of the most awesome people I've met ever since I've met James and Remus in our first year, he's a prankster like us and he comes up with some amazing ideas, we haven't seen him in action yet but from what he's told us , he knows how to have fun" said Sirius

"cool, how about you come up with the next great prank then?" asked Dylan "the 8 of us here, not counting Lily have always been the ones to come up with the great pranks, the Marauders, as they call themselves are the ones who come up with the ideas and we spread the word to the other houses, and plan the whole thing out" he explained to George.

"cool, that's really great"

"Well then, how about we go back to our dormitories now that we've found out about how the whole plan worked out" said Remus

"Yeah, I agree, we should, come on." James said as he stood up, and helped Lily up as well. They were the last to leave the common room, after saying Good night to one another, Lily gave him a short hug and ran up to the girls dormitories without another word or glance back.

When James entered his dormitory again, the others were talking cheerfully about Quiditch, and even though he would normally be dying to join the conversation, he just lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling, while listening to the others talking. After about a couple of minutes George changed the conversation, with a question about what had just happened downstairs.

"After our fifth year, we were famous all around the school for our pranks, and there were a lot of people who would have done anything to join us, and they all made this group which we pretended to be helping with learning a few of our tactics, f course we never gave any actual information away, but they're all too willing to do anything along with us that they didn't care as long as they got to join in with some prank. So twice or three times a year we help them with a prank, that they can all join in together." Explained Sirius.

"Oh, for a moment I thought they were actually serious with joining you and everything, well I think it's just fine while it's just the four, well the three of you"

"It's still the four of us, after all, you're here, you might not be a true Marauder but you and your twin brother are the next generation of Marauders." Said Sirius

"That means so much coming from you, the four of you were our idols all throughout Hogwarts"

"Did you hear that Prongs, we're their idols!" said Sirius enthusiastically

"Yeah, that's really great" James answered

"Let's go to sleep, it's getting late and we have classes tomorrow morning" said Remus, and everyone got into their pyjamas and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, all four boys woke up with a start, as someone was rapping continuously on their door.

"Who is it?' asked Remus and Sirius continued "and what do you want this early in the morning?"

"It's Lily, and Dumbledore told me to get you because he wants to talk to all of us. Anyways, it's not even that early, it's seven o'clock. Now, all of you should be in front of his office in 10 minutes." She said as the boys heard her footsteps going down the stairs.

"What do you think Dumbledore wants to talk to us about?" asked Remus

"Maybe he wants to congratulate us on not taking part in the prank yesterday." Said James

"Or tell us off because he thinks we took part in it," said George

"I don't think it's because of that, after all he called Lily there as well" said James

"I guess we'll see, someone should wake Sirius up, he doesn't seem to have heard Lily" George said, and it was absolutely true since it took another two minutes to get Sirius to finally wake up.

"Come on, let's get dressed we only have like 5 minutes left to be there." Said Remus

Five minutes later the four of them were heading down to the common room, and then running down the hallway toward Dumbledore's office. Lily was already there when they got there, and she was just starting to go up, so they followed right behind her. Dumbledore made the door open; the moment Lily was going on knock on it. He was sitting behind his desk, looking exactly like the day when George arrived there using the time turner. The only difference to the office were four extra chairs surrounding Dumbledore's desk, they were all identical to the one that usually stood across the desk from him.

"Well why are you all standing there, come on in and sit down."

All of them were confused about what was happening and why Dumbledore wanted to see them, but they all sat down without another word.

"I believe you're all wondering why I called you up here before class, well that was because I was wondering how the reading is going, after all this is a very serious subject we're talking about"

Lily was first to answer "we've started reading, actually we've already gone through three chapters"

"Well that's really good then, you should continue reading at this rate. Now about the things you read, I hope you're all getting on well with everything you found out so far, no great shocks yet or anything like that?" continued Dumbledore, as Lily and James shared a look full of meaning.

"Actually sir, there has been a certain event that is still rather misunderstood by all of us" said James

"It has to do with You-Know-Who" said Lily

"Oh I thought he would be mentioned in these books as well, please do go on" said Dumbledore

"Well Lily and I are supposedly going to get killed by him, does he have a reason yet to kill us, is there anything that we're missing out on in the present day?" asked James

"If you think about it, Lily is muggle born, and you know that he's mostly after wizards that are not pure-bloods or have some sort of wizard parentage." Said Remus, the room was quiet for a few minutes while everyone though the whole thing through, then Lily decided to tell Dumbledore everything they've read so far and explained the last three chapters in as many details as she could, for the following fifteen minutes they all sat quietly and listened to Lily's story.

"First of all, I must congratulate Mr Potter for finally managing to reach Miss Evans standards, and second of all, that son of yours has quite a life ahead of him" said Dumbledore "perhaps Voldemort was not after Lily after all, it could be the kid he was after, perhaps something he'd heard made him go after the kid, something that could affect Voldemort himself, I believe you will find out more about what is to happen along the course of the books, and you should finish reading before trying to work everything out, since it's bound to come up in the books, is that right, Mr Weasley?" said Dumbledore

"That is absolutely correct sir"

"Well then, I say you keep the information you obtain from the books quiet from other people, and now you should al head to breakfast before classes start"

Everyone got up, all of them still as confused as they had been before talking to the Headmaster.

Their day wasn't as bad as it usually was, then again it was only their first week, Sirius, George and James all took the same classes, and today they all had Care of Magical Creatures, charms, double herbology, and then Defence against the Dark arts. Remus and Lily sometimes had other subjects, which included, arithmacy, charms, double potions, and Defence against the Dark arts. The one thing that was common was that they all finished at the same time that day.

They all went to the Quiditch field together, there they split up, Remus and Lily sat down in the tribunes surrounding the Quiditch field and the other boys went down to the centre of the field where everyone who showed up for the try outs was standing. What was left of last year's team were all huddled up together talking about who might join them this year. There weren't a lot of people to have showed up for try outs, actually there were less than the year before, but that could be because there were less empty places on the team than at the beginning of the previous year. The team was missing a beater, a chaser and a seeker, whereas in the previous year almost half of the team had to be replaced since they were all 7th years who'd left Hogwarts. They started out by making them fly around the field a couple of times, while dodging the bludgers that were roaming around them. It was obvious that some of them had hardly any experience at all. James had prepared a few extra things for them to do, therefore the try outs took longer than they did in the previous year, and by the time he had chosen people for the remaining places on the team, and also appointed a few reserves, it was almost completely dark outside, and Lily had already gone inside.

By the time they got back inside the common room was completely empty, except for the people that just came back from the try outs, James was hoping to see Lily before he went to bed but she wasn't there anymore. They all went to sleep immediately when they got back to the dormitory.

The next morning they were all woken up by George's magically magnified voice screaming at them to get up. It was a couple of minutes before Sirius stop complaining about Geroge waking them up, but they all had to get dressed really quickly since it was already getting late, therefore they would have to rush through breakfast in order to get to class on time. They all had double transfiguration, Defence against the Dark arts, and double history of magic that day, but they managed all the classes, with piles of homework from every teacher due the next week. That afternoon Lily came up with a plan to read two or three chapters on one day and the next day should be left empty for homework. They all agreed to it, although not looking forward too much toward the homework days, but it was the best way to organize their time.

"Alright who wants to read the next chapter?" asked Lily after they had all settled down in the same places as the previous night on which they had read.

"I'll read now" said James, and George passed him the book.

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**

"And Hagrid makes his great appearance" said Sirius

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"Is he planning on shooting Hagrid?" asked Lily sounding quite worried

"Nope, I think that's just to try and scare him" said George

Sirius snorted "Hagrid scared of a small rifle? Please... The guy could take care of a dragon as a house pet and not have the slightest fright in him"

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!" There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

"Why would Hagrid smash down the door?"Asked James, then Lily said "we're not even sure it's Hagrid, it could be someone else."

"I already told you it's Hagrid, by accident, and anyways the title is the keeper of the keys, and seriously who else could that be except for Hagrid?" said George

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"That's Hagrid for sure, and we shouldn't be asking George all these questions since he's going to end up telling us the whole story before we even read it" said Lily

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

Everyone started laughing at James's imitation of Hagrid's accent.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. "Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

"He got my looks, now let's hope he gets your smart" said James

"I think it's pretty obvious he got his brains from you, Prongs" said Sirius "then again he might have gotten some from Lily as well, but not as much as you, you heard him talk to Dudley after all."

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"Oh shut up, he's here to get Harry to the place he belongs, far away from you" said James

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

"That's right Hagrid, you show him who the boss is!" said Sirius

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. "Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

"Aww, Hagrid gave Harry something right after he met him, a million times better than the Dursley's have given him in his entire life" said Lily

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"oh Harry, you should always say thank you to nice gifts" said Lily

"Then again a giant man you've never met before entered your house in the middle of the sea, I think anyone would forget about good manners in such a situation" said Remus

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Oh Hagrid, don't drink in front of the kids, well not in front of Harry at least" said Lily

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

"I thought Hagrid's not allowed to do magic" said Lily

"I think Dumbledore let's him do magic when he's on a job" said Remus

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. **

"I never understood and I don't think I'll ever understand how he fits all those things in his coat" said Sirius

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six, fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"I don't even think those were meant for Dudley in the first place," said James

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

Everyone was grinning and Lily said "I wish Hagrid curses the little brat" as the rest of them were staring at her.

"I never thought I'd hear Lily say something like that" said Sirius and everyone laughed again

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er - no," said Harry. Hagrid looked shocked. "Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"I've already lost all hope that the Dursley's told him anything about magic" said Lily

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

"They didn't tell him anything Hagrid, he won't be too happy when he hears that" said Remus

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

"Hagrid better kick some Dursley ass tonight!" said James

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

"How does this have anything to do with what Hagrid's talking about?" asked George

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. "DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

"He's losing it for sure" said Remus

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

"That's right, Lily and I are famous!" said James

"Famous because you're dead" Sirius reminded them.

"Well, we're still famous" said James

"I don't think fame is so great when you're dead though" said Lily

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally. Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"One does not simply tell Hagrid what to do, especially when he's this angry, and right as well" said Sirius

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

"Ah just shut up and let Hagrid tell the boy everything you should've told him all those years" said Lily

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."**

"Finally!" Sirius shouted

"He knows the truth!" James continued

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"- a what?" gasped Harry.**

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"Did you hear that, Hagrid thinks we're amazing!" said James

"He didn't exactly say that, it sounded more like he's proud of us" said Lily

"Because we're amazing!"

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme**

**Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"That was my reaction as well, when I git my letter but my first question was more like 'is this true', or 'how is this possible'" said Lily

"Harry is not exactly a normal kid brought up my muggles is he?" asked Sirius

"Of course not, after all, he's my son!" said James

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment.**

**With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore, Given Harry his letter, taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well. Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"It is, in the Wizarding world" said Remus

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said. Hagrid grunted.**

"I'd like to see you trying to stop Hagrid from taking him away!" said James

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said. "A what?" said Harry, interested.**

Everyone laughed at the similarity between the two phrases.

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

"They still don't understand that they can't stamp magic out of a witch or a wizard." Said Lily

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

Everyone was quiet for a few moments, and the Lily said "I never knew she felt that way, I thought she liked having me as a sister, and enjoyed the things I did, after all I was doing them to entertain her, not to show off."

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"How dare you, I, I" Lily was in tears by the end of that sentence, and James saw this as his chance and hugged Lily tightly, as he continued reading.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" "But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

"Hagrid is talking so nicely about us!" said Lily, still in tears.

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. "I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

"I'm guessing that's You-Know Who, he's talking about" said Sirius.

**"Who? "**

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." "Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. "Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. " Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

"He was right, he's not exactly the best at explaining these things but at least Harry gets an idea of what happened, he'll learn all of it anyways when he gets to Hogwarts" said George

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"That all sounds so nice, I can't believe, I mean, I never knew Hagrid thought that way about us" said Lily

"Maybe it's something we did after Hogwarts, but maybe we really are that good, after all I managed to become head boy, and I still have no idea why Dumbledore chose me for that, after all the trouble I gave him" said James

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

Lily hid her head in James's shirt and started sobbing again.

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

"The McKinnons and the Bones?" asked Remus "But they're amazing, I never thought anyone would ever be able to overcome them, and the Prewetts as well, we have to take this more seriously, after all, we have the power to save the lives of all these innocent people!"

"Yeah, Remus is right, we have to take these books really seriously" said James

"Lily's making the most effort so far, she's definitely got them at heart," said George

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"I still can't believe he remembers the green light, and even the laugh, now that's really amazing" said Sirius

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these Wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

James seemed to be too angry to say anything, and Lily continued sobbing next to James.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. "But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"The Imperius curse, I've heard there are more and more people getting caught by the ministry, and then overcoming the Imperius curse" said Remus

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

"That's my son!" said James with less enthusiasm than he usually would.

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"Actually I'm wondering that as well, how come Dudley didn't trun into a pig yet, or Vernon into some sort of rat?" asked Sirius

Lily who in the meantime had gathered herself together said "Perhaps Harry never wanted to get rid of them, just save his own skin, therefore that's exactly what happened, he got himself out of trouble but didn't cause anymore"

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"I've come to the conclusion that he's just too stupid, and that he'll never learn not to put up with someone like Hagrid" said George

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Oh Merlin, he's gone way too far with that, you should never, and I repeat NEVER insult Dumbledore in front of Hagrid!" said Sirius

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley**

"Yes! Finally! Hagrid's going to curse him!" shouted James

**- there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Everyone was now roaring with laughter, even Lily, and this time it actually took five minutes before the laughter died out completely and Sirius was finally able to say "My respect for Hagrid just grew so much in the past few minutes; he's officially one of my favourite wizards, even though he's not fully qualified as one!"

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

Everyone was laughing again, but the laughter died out faster this time.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job"**

"That's exactly what I said, wow that was one lucky guess!" said Remus

"Actually it was simply a very logical guess" said Lily

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

"I never actually knew why he was expelled, did he ever tell any of you?" asked Sirius

"Actually we got to find out in Harry's second year, so you'll hear in the next book, I think." Said George

**"Why were you expelled?"**

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"That's it, should we read another one?" asked James

"Yeah, we should, so that we have time tomorrow for all the homework." Said Lily

"Guys, you're forgetting something, some of us here would like to have a snack" said Sirius

"Actually it's just you, but sure you can go to the kitchens and get something fast, Lily and I will come as well, is that right Evans?"

"Yeah sure, why not, I mean with you around, I don't think we have much of a chance of getting caught"

And the three of them left the dormitory without another word.

**So yeah that's it, thanks for reading guys, the next chapter will be up as soon as possible, and don't forget to review! **


	6. Chapter 5: Diagon Alley

This is the next chapter, I'm so sorry for not posting for almost a month, I was away on vacation, and didn't have much time or internet, anyways I'm back and this is the longest chapter so far. I hope it makes up for my inactivity

Chapter 6

The hallways were just as they expected them to be, completely deserted. They were lucky not to meet anyone, not even peeves, all the way down to the kitchens, where the elves greeted them with great enthusiasm, as they always did. There were more than a hundred elves working in the Hogwarts kitchens, and who knows how many more cleaning the entire castle. As usual, they gave the 3 students everything they asked for and were very welcoming. Lily who'd never been to the kitchens before, also joined Sirius in asking for a couple of treats, which was quite unusual for her, but James knew that everyone who he'd ever taken to the kitchens acted in the exact same way.

When they left, James and Sirius were both carrying a small bag full of different kinds of snacks and sweets. They were only in the kitchens for about 10 minutes, therefore they didn't expect much to have changed around the corridors, and they were right, not a single teacher was anywhere near them, so their way to the common room was clear. Of course, none of them expected anything to come in their way, as nothing showed up on it when they left the kitchens, but they were wrong. Just as they finished climbing the stairs, and were 2 corridors away from the common room Peeves showed up, through a wall, right in front of them, and started throwing, in their opinion, everything he got his hands on that made the most noise when it hit the ground, such as vases, suits of armour... That's when the three of them started running as fast as they could towards the common room, but McGonagall was standing right in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, still dressed in her day clothes.

"I want all three of you, in my office right now, wait for me there, I'll bet there in a short while, since I have to make sure Peeves stops with all this noise before he wakes up the entire castle!"

"Yes ma'am" said the three of them at the exact same time, as Sirius and James shared a confused look. The three of them started for McGonagall's office as James and Sirius were discussing various excuses as for what they were doing out of bed, luckily Peeves got hold of their food, therefore McGonagall wouldn't know they were carrying it around. Lily wasn't listening to what they were talking about, she was rather making up her own excuses and thinking of ways to get out of this without getting detention. When they finally reached McGonagall's office, which was left unlocked, they all sat down on a chair in front of her desk and the two boys continued their conversation until McGonagall showed up.

"Well, I must say I'm impressed, it's almost the end of the week and this is the first time the two of you have gotten into trouble, now, I don't want to hear any pathetic excuses, just tell me exactly what happened and you might get away with it if the story is really good." She said then turned to Lily, as if expecting her to answer.

Lily sighed and started telling McGonagall "well, we were reading the books professor Dumbledore told you about and in between chapters we decided to go down to the kitchens and get a snack"

"We were being productive, and doing somehitng we were supposed to do when Sirius here got hungry, we usually have extra sweets left after the Hogwarts express, but this time we didn't have any left" continued James

"So you just though it acceptable to go down to the kitchens after dinner and ask for more food," she had a disapproving look on her face, but then continued " well then, as you were unsuccessful tonisght, in getting anything up to your dormitories I suggest you get a few things from dinner next time, instead of sneaking out after curfew, now off you go the three of you, don't make any noise, oh and by the way, I was expecting more from you Miss Evans and Mr Potter, after all Dumbledore trusted you enough to make the two of you head boy and girl, don't disappoint him!" she said, as she opened the door to let them go.

When they were in front of the portrait Lily was the first to say anything since they left McGonagalls office.

"How exactly did we get away that easily?"

"I think she was in a good mood" said James

"Or it might have been because Lily was with us and she wouldn't have expected her doing anything bad." Said Sirius

"Either way, we better take her advice and not wonder around after curfew" said Lily

"Are you kidding? Ha, please you can stay in here if you want but Prongs and I are going back to the kitchens, if you haven't noticed we still don't have anything to eat"

"Actually Padfoot, I think I'll skip it tonight, if we meet Peeves again there's no way we'll get out without detention, and personally I think our free time is very little as it is without us losing any more of it."

"Be as you want it, I'm going down there again, I'll be fast, you guys can go ahead and start the chapter without me"

"You know we won't do that" Lily sighed again "Dumbledore told us we all need to be there when we're reading, oh, you know what, just be really fast, and make sure you don't get into any trouble"

Lily and James both went up to the dormitory where the other were talking away cheerfully, they didn't even notice the two of them coming in, and sitting down on James's bed until they also started conversing with each other. Sirius came in 15 minutes later with his hands full of different kinds of snacks, even more than they had brought originally.

"Alright then, who wants to read now?" Asked James

"I think I will, I haven't read in a while" said Remus, and James passed him the book.

**CHAPTER FIVE DIAGON ALLEY**

"Finally we get to hear more about wizards and not those stupid muggles!" said Sirius

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

**"It was a dream, he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

"Oh no you won't!" said Lily "Hagrid will still be there to take you away and have a life a million times better than the one you've lived so far"

"Why would he even tell himself it was a dream?" asked Sirius

"Perhaps he didn't want to disappoint himself too much if Hagrid wasn't there" said Remus

"Oh, well for a kid who hasn't had the much excitement in his life, I guess that's normal behaviour." said James

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise. And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

"and a very realistic one as well" said George

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

"I was actually starting to wonder what that tapping was, do you think it's a letter from Dumbledore?" asked Sirius

"I don't think he would've answered back and anyways that wasn't much of a letter that needs an answer, the letter itself was somewhat of an answer" said Lily

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"A prophet owl, of course, they're so annoying, they won't stop plucking at whatever you're wearing or at your fingers until you pay them," said James

"Once I tried to away from one without paying it, it chased me around for about half an hour, and then just stole the 5 knuts from my jacket." Said Sirius

"Yeah, you should never put up with the Prophet owls" said Remus, and then continued reading

**"Don't do that."**

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

"When I was younger, one of these owls bit off the head of a doll that Narcissa was playing with while they delivered the Daily Prophet, things turned out quite ugly back then, and she was only ten when that happened" said Sirius

"Yeah, as much as we'd love to hear about how ferocious your cousins are we should go on reading," said Lily

"Not like I want to talk about them, both of them are such bitches, I bet they're both going to rot in Azkaban like rats" said Sirius, as George tried to hide a grin and Lily seemed to be trying really hard not to tell him off for his language

"Yeah, umm I think Remus should go on, perhaps Azkaban is not exactly the best subject right now" George said, while thinking that at this time of the story Sirius had already been in Azkaban for quite a few years. Sirius gave George a confused and disappointed look, probably because he'd probably expected George to take his side and continue arguing with Lily.

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl "Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa. "What?"**

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... **

"Again, I've always wondered how he fits all those things in there" said Sirius

"I know, those pockets aren't even that big" said James

"We're surrounded by wizards, you're wizards yourselves and yet you question a lack of space? That's just pathetic, isn't it obvious there has got to be some sort of expanding spell or something"said Lily

"That actually makes a lot of sense, but Hagrid isn't exactly allowed to use magic" said Remus

"Well, we're not allowed around the school during the night, yet that still doesn't stop us from roaming the corridors at night, does it?" said George

"Yeah, Lil's probably right, well, we figured out one thing at least" said Sirius

**finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

"They did seem strange at first to me, but you get used to them, they're quite different from muggle coins" said Lily

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily. "Knuts?"**

**"The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window. Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

**"Best be Off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

**"Um - Hagrid?"**

**"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"Wait I just thought of that, haven't we left him anything after we died, I mean from everything my parents have, I inherited all that right, why would he not have any money?" asked James

"Maybe because all of it is in Gringotts?" said Lily "The kid only heard of muggle banks until now."

"Oh, yeah, right"

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

**"But if their house was destroyed -"**

"Wizards don't keep all their money in their house, not even muggles do that, at least not normal muggles" said Remus

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"Your parents left you money in a wizard bank, now have a sausage, Hagrid always does this, just randomly changes the subject from something really serious to something else like food." Said Sirius

**"Wizards have banks?"**

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding. "Goblins?"**

"I had an even worse reaction when I first entered Gringotts" said Lily "And Tuney actually ran out of Gringotts shrieking after seeing a goblin"

"Merlin, I wish I was there to see that" said Sirius

**"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see.**

"I really like how Dumbledore trusts Hagrid to do so many important things, eventhough he did something bad enough to have been expelled, he still trusts him a lot." Said Lily

**"Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. "Flew," said Hagrid.**

**"Flew?"**

**"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

"I bet Hagrid would be allowed to use magic for this, but he probably just wants to leave the Dursley's on the island, just imagine thos three trying to swim back, that must be the most hilarious thing ever" said Sirius

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"Told you he would still use magic" said Sirius

"Actually you didn't say that" said Lily as Sirius interrupted

"And you had to ruin my moment of glory for predicting the future!"

"We're literally reading the future right now, so don't get me started on just how much of an idiot you're being right now!" said Lily in quite an angry tone

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked. "Spells - enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke.**

"I heard some of the older vaults even have dragons guarding them" said James

**"They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

"Do you think someone will ever be able to rob a Gringotts vault," said James, and continued immediately so as not to let Lily tell him off "I'm not trying to be mean, I just meant that it would be cool if anyone would ever be able to succeed with this, they would have to be an amazing witch or wizard"

Lily sighed "I guess it would be cool to hear of such a great wizard, but if they would want to rob a Gringotts vault, they would also probably be some Dark wizard, which again is not exactly something or someone we would want to hear about,"

"Actually there are some wizards who would want to rob Gringotts for a good reason" said George with a grin on his face

"Did someone rob a Gringotts vault in the future?" asked Sirius

"I never said someone robbed it, just said that it doesn't necessarily have to be a dark wizard"

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, O'course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

"Fudge is going to be minister of Magic? That old git doesn't know anything about ruling the ministry of magic, where is the Wizarding world going to get to?" said Remus

"Yeah, the guy really has certain issues, you should see what happens in Harry's third and fourth year, and I'm going to shut up now." Said George as Lily was preparing to stop him when he started saying too much

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

"I thought Hagrid just told you, mess things up!" said James

"They do a few good things as well, like keep muggles away from any knowledge about the Wizarding world" said Remus

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

**"Why?"**

**"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"I bet the muggles who saw him doing that though he was a complete psycho" said Sirius

"Of course they did, those are normal things for them, and Hagrid's behaviour is normal wizard behaviour when surrounded by muggle technology" said Lily

**"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"**

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon." "You'd like one?"**

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid - here we go."**

"I've completely lost count of the unusual creatures Hagrid wants, or already has, I heard the forbidden forest is full of creatures that Hagrid has domesticated in one way or another" said Remus

"Some people simply have different interests than others." Said Lily

"I don't think that's Hagrid's interest, more like his obsession!" said James

"Fine, whatever, he just really like strange creatures, now, can we continue reading, it's getting late." Said Lily

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

"Knitting? Out of all the things I've seen Hagrid do, I don't think I ever saw him knit." Said James

"Just imagine how weird it is for those muggles, seeing a person as big as Hagrid on a train, and even more, knitting, I wish I could see their faces." Said Remus

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk**

**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore **

**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**

"They only changed half of the books, in about 20 years, I would have expected a bigger change in course books" said Remus

"Perhaps the books we have are better than those that were written until they were at Hogwarts" said Lily

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**wand cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) **

**set glass or crystal phials**

**telescope set brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN**

**BROOMSTICKS**

"That's the only part of the entire Hogwarts letter that I actually hate, I mean why can't first year bring broomsticks, if they already know how to use one," said James

"Because it wouldn't be fair towards the muggleborns, that's why!" said Lily

"Still, they can learn as well"

"Just like the others can wait for one more year," said Lily

Everyone was quiet for a bit, then Remus decided he should keep on reading.

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud. "If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

"That's true though, before I thought trains were one of the fastest ways to get around, but after I learned to apparate, it seems like they're really slow and it takes forever to get somewhere." Said Lily

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

"Why would he not trust him, it's Hagrid!" said Sirius

"Maybe because some giant person he doesn't know, just randomly appeared on an island in the middle of the sea and told him he's a wizard, which until then he thought existed only in fairytales" said Lily

"That seems like a good enough reason," said Sirius

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

"Can muggles not see the Leaky Cauldron?" asked James

"I guess there are special enchantments on it so that muggles don't just wonder inside" said Lily

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. **

"A toothless walnut?" said George "Harry definitely lacks talent at comparison"

"Or he's so good at it he even associates people with things such as walnuts" said James

"Whether he's good at it or not, he's hilarious when he describes people" said Sirius

**The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

"Does he really need to tell everyone he meets that he's on Hogwarts business?" asked Remus

"Let's admit it, I think he's just showing off, it makes him feel in some way special that he has important jobs for the greatest school in the world" said Sirius

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?"**

"My son!" said James "That's right, Harry Potter, the son of the great and amazing James Potter!"

"Show off!" said Lily "But he's my son as well!"

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. "Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

**"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

"Perhaps he was better off growing up with muggles, but definitely not the Dursley's" said Lily

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." "So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

"Yeah, Doris has always been something of a fanatic" said Remus

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you."**

Everyone was laughing at Remus trying to imitate Professor Quirrell.

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

**"Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh – **

"That's something normal, he's always trembling" said Remus

**mind you, he's usually tremblin'." "Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, where's me umbrella?"**

"Poor guy, but he's a good teacher" said Lily

"Yeah, speak for yourself, I hardly managed to get into his N.E.W.T class" said Sirius

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

Everyone was laughing again, then George said, "I don't really know why but that just sounds so comical"

**"Three up... two across he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later, they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

"When I first walked into Diagon alley I thought it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, there were so many things I've never seen and everyone was dressed so weirdly and it was the most amazing day of my life" said Lily dreamingly

"The first time I went to Diagon alley I pooped my diapers" said Sirius and everyone but Lily started laughing

"Oh Shut up, you have no idea how amazing it is for someone who's never been anywhere near anything that has to do with wizards" said Lily

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."**

"Seventeen sickles? Wow prices do go up a lot in fifteen years, last time I was in Diagon Alley it was only ten sickles" said Remus

"Come on, there's things that change dramatically in less than a month, let alone 15 years" said George

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -" **

"Nimbus two thousand? Is that fast?" asked James "I only have a comet 67, and that's one of the fastest there is, there's no way the nimbus can get faster than that."

"Actually you would be amazed with the things they came up with, I have a cleensweep 5 now, you guys can try it out some time." said George

"Ohh Merlin, please don't start on Quiditch now, let's finish reading this chapter, you can talk about that later" said Lily frustrated.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...**

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -**

**"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn. **

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, **

**beware Of finding more than treasure there.**

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

"I bet he's even famous amongst Goblins and not just wizards" said James

"Of course he is, You-Know-Who also terrorized them, not just the Wizards" said Lily

"I never actually realized that other species can also be terrified of him" said Sirius

"Well you're not very observant then" said Lily

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose.**

"Classic Hagrid, he really doesn't care about what others think, and just goes on with things, the way he wants to, I think that's actually quite nice" said Lily

"That's until he starts taking mouldy biscuits out of his pockets and other things such as dead mice or toads" said Sirius

**Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key. The goblin looked at it closely.**

**"That seems to be in order."**

"He doesn't seem to be trusting Hagrid too much" said Remus

"Well, Hagrid has been acting really weird, or at least weirder than most people that have vaults in Gringotts" said George

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the YouKnow-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

"I don't think Hagrid will tell him, but if he's as persuasive and as tricky as Prongs, he'll eventually find out, and it'll probably turn out to be something utterly boring." Said Sirius.

"It's not always boring, well it is usually boring but Hagrid makes these things seem so mysterious" said James

"And of course, you can't resist temptation and torment poor Hagrid continuously until he tells you what it is," said Lily

"If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be James Potter, the great and the amazing"

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

"See? That's what he does all the time, I mean come on, who wouldn't want to find out what it is after Hagrid does that?" asked James

"I don't think Hagrid should go around talking like that, especially with so many idiots around" said Lily "One of them is bound to get interested in that and find out about it."

"Come on Evans, I'm just curious, not an idiot." Said James

"That's what they all say" said Lily

"Well according to the way you're talking about it, you've met a lot of idiots." Said Sirius

"You have no idea," said Lily with a grin on her face.

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.**

"I'm surprised the other two fit with Hagrid there, those carts are not exactly big" said Remus

"I'm guessing that's why Harry supposedly put the word "small" in, when describing the cart" said George

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

"Those things go really fast, that's why I'm always really sick and confused whenever I get out of Gringotts" said Lily

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late **

"I don't think it was, dragons are usually a lot deeper under the ground, guarding the older vaults." Said Remus

"I'm guessing it was just a torch, they sometimes give that impression." Said Lily

**- - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. "I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

"How's Hagrid supposed to know that, I don't even see a point in learning the difference, they're both basically the same thing" said Sirius

"Oh that's easy, and by the way it is important, they occur in limestone caves. The stalactite is above, and hangs downward like an icicle; the stalagmite is below and sticks up. They grow in pairs, the slightly acidic water dissolves some of the limestone, carrying it downward. When the water evaporates, the limestone appears to have flowed downward. Some of the water does not evaporate until it has fallen through the air, and landed on the floor, the remaining limestone building the stalagmite. Sometimes the stalactite is missing, as they sometimes break off and fall; you will often see their pieces on the floor. Often, the stalactite and stalagmite will connect, and become a column." Lily said with a grin on her face

"How can you remember all of that, I can't even remember which one's up and which one's down, let alone the entire definition and science of it" said James

"She can remember it because she is Lily Evans, and you're not, anyways that is stuff that muggles spend their time on and I don't see how I'll ever need that piece of information in my life" said Sirius

"You're just jealous you don't have such a good memory as Lily" said Remus

"Me? Jealous? Please ! I can't believe you still didn't learn that by now, Moony. I don't get jealous, I'm more fabulous than anyone else, I'm Sirius Black!"

"Wow, calm down there, you really haven't changed at all in 15 years" said George

"ha, ha, that's right I am and always will be awesome!"

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

Everyone started laughing, and then Sirius said, "See? Didn't I tell you Hagrid wouldn't know?"

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

"That's basically description of what I look like every time I go to Gringotts" said Lily

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

"Wow, we left him a lot" said Lily

"I'm guessing it's mostly what I inherited from my parents, or we got a lot of gold for getting killed by Voldemort" said James

**All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. **

"And that is exactly why they never found out about it, and why they never will" said James

"Before I found out what Tuney was like to Harry I would have never agreed with that but now I do, it really is a good thing that they didn't find out." Said Lily

**How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

"They've been complaining about how much he cost them? They never even got him anything, I bet they never even fed him enough, how can he cost them a lot?" said James angrily

"I've stopped trying to understand these people a long time ago" said George

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

"I wish they could, and the answer I got was" Lily said pointing at Remus as if presenting to them something, while he went on.

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

"How'd you know he was going to say that?" asked George

"These Gringotts Goblin's don't say much unless it has to do with their job" said Lily

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

"I can imagine Hagrid doing that" said Remus while everyone was laughing.

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"I think I've heard of those, only the Gringotts Goblins can open them" said James

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

"I wonder how often they check inside these to see whether there's anyone trapped inside" said James

"I don't think they ever do" said Lily "That's not really their business, to see how many people tried to break into Gringotts, just to keep it safe from thiefs, and actually not even that, Gringotts does that all by itself"

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. "About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin. Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous, jewels at the very least**

"I don't think it's jewels" said Lily "Hagrid could've told him about that"

**- but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

"What could be so small and so important" asked Sirius

"The most important things are quite often really small" said Remus

"The great Moony has spoken" said James with a grin on his face

"Oh come on guys, I was trying to sound philosophical" said Remus

"And instead you sounded like a paedophile" said George

"Yeah looks who's talking, as if any of you could've come up with something like that. And it was actually a really good answer to Sirius's question" said Lily

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

"Well he knows what he has to do, now he should learn when to do it, since he tends to have a hard time keeping his mouth shut when it comes to telling people like Harry about important Hogwarts secrets" said George

"He's not that bad, just think about what Hogwarts would be like if Hagrid wasn't here, and after all nobody is perfects" said Lily

"Yeah, Lily's right Hagrid really cares about us I think we shouldn't be talking like this behind his back" said James

"Great, then we can talk about Slughorn behind his back, that git doesn't care about us the slightest, except for Lily and the rest of the slug club" said Sirius

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life - more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."**

"Wait, a second, did Hagrid just leave my son to roam Diagon Alley all by himself so that he could go and have a drink? Well Hagrid and I will be having one long chat the next time we meet," said Lily

"Come on Lily, he's just being himself and you know that very well," said James

"I know he's being himself but he should really behave better around kids"

"He works at a school, he's always surrounded by kids, and yet if Dumbledore thinks it's ok, I think we can trust him" said James "And I'm sure Harry could get along on his own, after all isn't that basically what he'd had to his entire life?"

"Yeah, I guess so" said Lily

**He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

"Thank god Madam Malkin is a really nice person, he'll be ok with her" said LIly

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. "Hogwarts, clear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. "**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him) slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?" "Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

"Sounds like a spoiled brat if you ask me" said Remus

"He reminds me a bit of Dudley" said James

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

"Just as I said" said James

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on. "No," said Harry.**

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be. "I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"Of course he doesn't, he doesn't even know what the houses are, or what each of them is like, actually he didn't even know about Hogwarts until the day before, all because of..." said Lily angrily

"Come on Lils, calm down, I think we've all agreed on the fact that we all hate the Dursleys" said James

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" "Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

"Slytherin? Well that explains everything." Said James

"I don't think Hufflepuffs are that bad, they're actually really nice people, I don't see what everyone's got against them" said Lily

"They just seem like a bunch of losers, that's what everyone's got against them" said Sirius

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

"He's not a servant!" said Lily rather loudly "he's the most amazing gamekeeper the school could have!"

"We all know that, but apparently Slytherins are too royal and too high up to see anyone else but themselves as being amazing" said George

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

"So what, that doesn't matter, at least he knows how to be nice to people, and how to care for others unlike you filthy little brat" said Lily

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

**"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

"I feel so bad for Harry, now everyone at Hogwarts will probably start asking him such questions and he'll just awkwardly have to find a good answer" said Remus

"Actually that wasn't really the bad part, people didn't ask him much about his parents, instead they were all asking about what it was like to defeat You-Know-Who" said George

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

"That's a good way to end a conversation" said James, but the reminder of his death definitely got his mood down.

**"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?" **

"I hate how these people are so obsessed with the whole pure-blood thing; I mean why does it matter so much? They're just like my family I bet they would even marry their own siblings or cousins if that meant keeping a pure-blood line." Said Sirius

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

"I swear I hate that kid more than the Dursleys" said Sirius

"No, there's no way you can hate anyone more than the Dursleys" said James

"Yeah, you're right" said Sirius

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him**

**(chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

"That's Lily's favourite!" said James excitedly

"How do you even know that?" asked Lily

"I just happened to have heard it from someone," said James awkwardly

"Just get used to it, Prongs over here has done just about everything he could to find out as much about you as possible" said Sirius

"You know, that's called stalking, right ?" said Lily

"In the muggle world" George reminded them

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"I know how you feel Hagrid. My son, not knowing about Qudditch, that's just plain torture." Said James

"You know, In the future, when Harry is born, I'm going to get him his first broom, I can promise you that" said Sirius

"aww that's so nice, I never thought I'd ever tell Sirius Black that" said Lily

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate boy in Madam Malkin's.**

**"-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line 0' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

Lily sighed**.**

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"That has got to be the worst explanation of Quiditch I have ever heard" said James "Why does Hagrid, out of all people have to be the one to tell him what Quiditch is?"

"Well, if it weren't for Hagrid he'd be going to Hogwarts without knowing what Quiditch is at all, so be thankful Hagrid was at least there." Said Sirius

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.**

"NO WAY!" shouted both James and Sirius at once

"There's no way my son's a Hufflepuff" said James

"Says the exact same person who a couple of minutes ago was saying that Hufflepuffs are not that bad" said Lily

"Actually Sirius was the one who said that, I only commented on the Slytherin thing" said James "And anyways, I wasn't saying Hufflepuffs are bad, just that Harry will most definitely be a Gryffindor"

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

"ahm, explain Wormtail then." Said Sirius

"Come on Padfooot, don't bring it up, it's bad enough we lost our best friend because he's a back stabbing idiot, let's just not talk about it, ok?" said James and everyone agreed

**"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"I can imagine what was going through Harry's mind when he found a book with thousands of curses to use on Dudley" said Sirius

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"That of course is, if we don't do it before you son" said James

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

"Cursing your cousin who's been an absolute idiot and a jerk is a special circumstance." Said George

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either**

"Why would he even want a solid gold cauldron, he's only a first year" said Remus

"The kid got, for the first time in his life a huge amount of money, which was completely his, of course he wanted to get as many things that are expensive as possible" said James

**("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present." **

**Harry felt himself go red. "You don't have to -"**

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

"And then he'll be able to write to Remus, since he hasn't yet been mentioned at all, where actually is he?" asked Sirius

"Yeah, I'd like to know that as well, does Harry get to meet me any time soon?" asked Remus

"I won't tell you guys much except for the fact that Remus only makes his appearance in Harry's third year, so you'll have to wait a while" said George

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

"I honestly don't think anyone can sound as bad as Quirrell," said George

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to. The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

"I wonder what wand Harry will get, I bet it's willow like mine" said Lily

"You're on, I bet it's Mahogany like mine, are you guys in as well?" asked James

"Alright, I bet it's Willow, winner gets a chocolate frog, from each of the losers" said Sirius

"I bet it's a holly wand" said Remus "Harry seems like the sort of person who would be fit to a holly wand"

"I'm guessing I'm not allowed to bet, right?" asked George

"Of course not!" said Sirius "You already know"

"Oh fine, Remus, go on reading" said George

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question**

"No, it was more of a statement" said Lily

"Again, I don't see why I would need to care" said Sirius

**"You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

"That explains why she's so good at charms" said James

"Maybe I'm just talented at it" said Lily

"And you have a wand that is especially good at it" said James

"Did anyone else notice that Ollivander is the second person to meet Harry, who's also met Lily and who tells him he's got her eyes, I bet that happens a lot to him" said Remus

"Oh, you have no idea" said George

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

"So I'm not the only one who thought that!" said Lily "My mum said he looked like a funny old person, and didn't see anything creepy about his eyes"

"Actually, if I think about it he is a bit creepy, how he remembers every single wand he'd ever sold and everything" said James

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. **

"It's either the wand or the fact that McGonagall really likes you but you deffinetely have grades almost as good as Lily's in transfiguration" said Sirius

"I've actually forgotten about the fact that it was good at transfiguration, well I guess that explains a lot" said James

**Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where..."**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

"That's really creepy, you just enter a shop and some old wizard just comes really close to you and starts poking your scar, I'm really sorry for Harry right now" said George "Most people just simply stare at it"

"Like that's any better or less creepy" said Sirius

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly.**

**"Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."**

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid. "Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

"Poor Hagrid, I heard they snap your wand in half if you get expelled," said Lily

"But from what I know Hagrid got to keep the remains, and when he first met Harry he had that pink umbrella, I bet the remains of his wand are in the umbrella, and he uses it as a disguise" said Remus

"It all fits together actually, and it explains why he's often carrying a pink umbrella on sunny days" said Sirius

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

**"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sit," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Of course he doesn't, he never uses it, why would you think he would use, I mean the remains of his magical wand, with magical powers, no, never" said Sirius sarcastically

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

**"Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own.**

"I've always wondered if all those measurements are actually needed, I mean come on seriously, between his nostrils?" asked Sirius rhetorically

"I guess they are, Ollivander doesn't seem like the sort of person to just do that for his own fun or to annoy his customers" said George

**Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."**

"And no one wins" said Sirius

"Wait, perhaps that's not the wand, he's only just trying it out" said James

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

"See ? Someone has to win" said James

"Not necessarily, there's hundreds of types of wood for wands and we have four guesses, I mean seriously what are the chances of it being one of these" said Lily

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -" Harry tried - but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

**"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"I had mine after the third try" said Lily "He really seems to be tricky to be matched"

"Ollivander got mine on the first try" said James "Guess I was quite an obvious person back then"

"Don't worry, you still are, most of the time" said Lily

"For example now, you would do anything for all of us to leave the room, so that you could start snogging with Lily" said Sirius

"Dude, what the hell?"

"Don't worry the chapter is almost over" said Remus

"And don't swear!" said Lily

"oooh, Lily's also becoming obvious" said Sirius with a grin

"ugh, Remus go on reading" said Lily

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.**

"Holly! I win, ha you all better start getting me chocolate frogs" said Remus

"ugh, and I was so sure I was going to win" said Remus

"You'll have to wait until the next Hogsmeade visit, since I'm all out of chocolate frogs" said Lily

"Doesn't matter, anyways we should make more bets like this through the book," said Remus

"Why? Feeling lucky tonight, you shouldn't waste your luck on bets then, I think you could still find a couple of girls down in the common room" said Sirius

"Yeah, and you should share that luck, you know, I'm sure a bit of it to each of us wouldn't make such a great difference" said George

"Great, well lets finish this chapter, and after that you can share whatever you want and do whatever you like" said Lily

" **Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "**

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..**

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"No way ! Voldemort's wand has the same core as Harry's ?! That's really weird !" said James. Everyone was quiet for a few moments and then Remus continued reading.

**Harry swallowed.**

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."**

"That is so true, I don't think anyone could have said it any better" said Lily

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

"I've always thought that wands are really quite expensive" said Remus

"Yeah, imagine how much more sweets you could get with 7 galleons" said Sirius

"Oh my gosh! Do you ever think of anything else but food?" asked Lily

"Yeah, I think of pranks" said Sirius with a huge grin on his face

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

"It happened to me as well, after being around wizards for an entire day, going back into the muggle world was really weird" said Lily

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life - and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry - I mean, the night my parents died."**

"I can't get over the fact that he's famous because of his parents' death and for something he can't even remember" said Remus

"It is quite weird, and believe me, it gets weirder by the year." Said George

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."**

"I love Hagrid when he gets all nice and emotional and stuff" said Lily

"Don't we all?" said James

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, Harry."**

"Shouldn't he tell Harry about platform 9 ¾ ?" asked Lily "How is the kid supposed to know he has to run into a wall to get onto it, it doesn't say anywhere on the envelope about that part, I had quite a lot of trouble myself" said Lily

"And that's where we come in" said George with a huge smile on his face, "Can't wait for that part" and his smile faded, though the others weren't quite sure what made it fade so fast.

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"That's it, we'll read the next chapter the day after tomorrow, right, because of the homework. I would much rather spend all day reading about Harry than doing homework" said Remus

"We all do Moony, but this being the last year here, we have to learn a lot more, and then we'll be done forever!" said James

"Yeah, that's how I'll get through this year, I'll be constantly telling myself, this and then I'll be free, this and then I'll be free.

"Ok, I'll be going now, goodnight guys" said Lily, and left before the others could reply

**So, yeah, this is it, I hope you liked it, sorry again for not posting for so long, I'll try to have the next chapter as soon as possible. Thanks for reading and continue reviewing, because I absolutely love your reviews and they really help and inspire me **


	7. Chapter 6:The Journey from platform

This is the next chapter (a million times faster than the last one). I don't own any of the characters or any of the blooded text. Enjoy

Chapter 7

The next morning, Lily woke up slightly earlier than she usually did. She was the only one awake in her dormitory, so she decided to go down and get some of the homework done before going down to breakfast. She had only just started researching for things to write in her potions paper when someone came behind her, and covered her eyes with both hands, then said. "Guess who?" It was a boy's voice, the very same voice she would recognize anywhere, the voice belonging to the boy who she'd spent most of her past week with.

"How come you're awake so early, Potter?" she asked

"You got me," said James, uncovering her eyes, and sitting next to her at the table "well, you know just decided that it was a good day to do some homework early in the morning" Lily gave him an untrusting look, with a small smile on her face.

James sighed "Fine, I just thought you'd be awake earlier so I came to talk to you,"

"Well, as you can see, I'm a bit busy at the moment, so you can come back later," she said

"Could I perhaps join you, I was thinking you could help me a bit, I should probably raise my grades in my last year, if I want to get a good job after this, right?" said James

"And what exactly makes you think that I would help you?" said Lily

"Lucky guess" he said, with a grin on his face

Lily sighed "Fine then, do you have things here, I'm doing my potions essay now."

"Yeah, I do actually have them here." Said James. They continued writing their essay for another half an hour, which was when more and more Gryffindors started getting up, meaning that the common room was getting noisier. That's when the decided to go down to breakfast, and finish the essay after classes, with the other guys.

Their classes were just like they usually were, long and boring, and besides that they even got a lot of homework, from professor Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall. The only thing that truly lightened up their day, was in the afternoon after they got back from dinner, and in the common room the date of the first Hogsmeade visit was put up. It would be in two weeks. The four boys sat at a table along with Lily and another friend of hers, Vivian.

Sirius sighed "This is going to take us forever to finish, and with all the new homework today, there's so much, I just want to go take a nap."

"Taking a nap is not going to help magically finish all your homework, and anyways it's best to do it all now so that you can have the rest of the weekend free," said Lily "Let's start with potions, since I've already done half of mine this morning and I could help you guys."

"You could help by writing it for me," said Sirius hopefully

"Yeah, right, in your dreams, Black" said Lily.

They were all up until 2 A.M, and when they all finally finished writing their transfiguration essays, they were way too tired to do much talking, so except for good night, no one said anymore, and they all went straight to bed.

"Up, Up, Up!" The four boys all awoke with a start.

"What happened? Is the school on fire or something?" asked Sirius while putting his pillow over his head

"No, but you sleepy heads already missed breakfast, and I don't think you would enjoy it too much if you'd miss lunch again, so come on, you have ten minutes to get dressed and come down to the common room" said Lily, as she left their dormitory.

"Why did she wake us up so early," said James, taking Sirius's example and covering his head with his pillow.

"I wonder what time it is, we did go to sleep quite late last night," said Remus

"I don't think I've ever spent this much time on homework, before, or at least not all in one afternoon" said Sirius

"Stop complaining, at least you don't have to do all the homework twice, in your life, like me" said George

"Oh, I just realized, you're repeating 7th year, oh, I actually feel really sorry for you," said James

"But at least he gets to spend time with us, so it won't be that bad" said Sirius, who'd finally decided to get out of bed and change.

"That definitely is a plus, you four, well three now were literally our idols all throughout Hogwarts, I don't know what we would've done without the Marauder's map" said George, who was fully dressed and was laying on his bed now, with the Harry Potter and the philosophers stone in his hand.

"Did you hear that guys, we're going to become the idols of people, they're going to want to be like us, how awesome is that?" said Sirius

"That's great, but we should head down to the common room now, Lily's waiting for us, and I'm sure James wouldn't want to be late" said Remus, while looking at James with a grin on his face

"Sometimes I tend to regret the fact that I told you about Lily" said James.

"Don't worry mate, we would've found out anyways," said Sirius, as they headed down the stairs.

"What would you have found out anyways?" asked Lily, whom no one noticed was sitting on the bottom most stair.

"Nothing important, just a thing" said James

"Oh ok then, let's go down and get some lunch" said Lily

"Yeah, let's hurry, I'm starving" said Sirius

After they were all full, and no one could have even a sip of pumpkin juice, they decided to continue reading out on the grounds. They all decided on a place in the shade, somewhere near the lake so that it wouldn't be too hot.

"Ok, who wants to read next?" asked George, "All I know is that Remus read last time"

"I will, I haven't read in like, forever." Said James

"All right, then," said George, and passed him the book

"Where did we finish off at?" asked James

"I think we finished chapter five, yeah, so just look at where chapter six starts" said Lily

"Oh, right, found it," said James

**CHAPTER SIX**

**THE JOURNEY FROM PLATFORM NINE AND THREE-QUARTERS **

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"How could it be?" said Sirius

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him - in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.**

"How is that bad? In fact that sounds amazing, with people like the Dursley's around" said James

**Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

"Having no one to talk to for a month can get depressing, so I kind of understand Harry" said Remus

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

"Yeah, my owl does that as well, perhaps they think that we like presents such as dead mice or other such small creatures" said James

"I remember I did that as well in my first year, ticking off the days until school started, I couldn't wait to get there and meet more witches and wizards," said Lily

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

Everyone started laughing "We definitely have to thank Hagrid for that one" said Sirius

**"Er - Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

**"Er - I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to - to go to Hogwarts." Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes. "Thank you."**

"What a social person, just keep on grunting and he'll go away," said Lily "I still can't believe my sister would marry such a person,"

"Just like none of us believe you actually married James," said Sirius, gaining an angry look from James. Lily turned a light shade of pink.

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.**

**"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"Magic carpets are illegal to use, too many muggles started noticing them," said Lily

"It is weird that they use a train, like a muggle train to get us to school" said Sirius

"They tried many different ways, such as portkeys, or letting everyone go there by themselves but there were loads of muggle sightings and stuff like that, the only way that actually worked and wasn't obvious to muggles was the train," said Lily

**Harry didn't say anything. "Where is this school, anyway?"**

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

"Why was he carrying his ticket with him?" asked James

"Are you kidding? I put my ticket in a glass case until the day I went to Hogwarts" said Lily

"Really? Why would you do that?" asked James

"Because I've never known about magic being real until I got my letter, and I didn't want anyone or anything ruining my first day with encountering actual magic," said Lily

"I've heard of others doing that as well, so it's not that weird, many muggleborns do stuff like that" said Remus

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read. His aunt and uncle stared. "Platform what?"**

**"Nine and three-quarters."**

**"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

**"It's on my ticket."**

"Oh no, this doesn't seem to be going in a good direction, perhaps he should have just said that he didn't know, without taking the ticket out of his pocket" said James

**"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

"I bet he would, after all it would mean he got rid of Harry for the rest of the year," said George

**"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

"I don't think friendly is exactly something that works on the Dursleys, more like punch them in the face and run" said Sirius

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"I almost forgot about" said Sirius, while laughing "I wonder how Dudley survived a whole month with that pig tail, I mean just imagine having to walk around with a pig tail for 5 minutes, let alone an entire month, I just love Hagrid so much after that"

"Let's not forget that this was only a part of Hagrid's plan, because he actually wanted to turn him into a pig, but the spell didn't work," said James

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes - he'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.**

"I bet that was a long and painful talk, for Aunt Petunia, but we must admire her, since she managed to get him to sit next to Harry, that is really an achievement," said George

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"That doesn't sound like the nice sort of grin that people say their goodbyes with" said Sirius

"Probably because that most definitely isn't one, I wonder what he's going to do to Harry," said Lily

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

"Oh, and there it is, don't you worry, Harry will get to Hogwarts, because there is a platform 9 ¾ even if you stupid muggle don't know about it" said James

"But how will he get onto the platform, since Harry doesn't know about it either," said Lily

"I thought I told you already" said George "That's where I come in"

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

"Except for the barrier to platform nine and three quarters" said Sirius

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. **

"That is so mean! I know Harry will get there but still, how could he just leave like that ?" said Lily

"I thought you would know what these Dursley's are capable of doing, by now," said James

**Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing. Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone.**

"And hopefully that someone will be a wizard," said Remus

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.**

"And it's not a wizard, although they should send someone from the ministry there, to guide the people like Harry to the platform," said Remus

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

"That is a horrible situation to be in at only 11 years old," said Sirius

"It's a horrible situation to be in at any age," said Lily

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

"Let's hope George over here shows up before he starts doing that" said James "he would look really retarded"

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"- packed with Muggles, of course -"**

"I'm guessing that's mum" said George

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him - and they had an owl.**

"Weasley to the rescue !" said Sirius excitedly

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

"Eavesdropping, huh?" said George "Well, at least he got to school, but he should really learn to stop eavesdropping, it's not always this useful,"

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mom, can't I go... "**

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it - but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

"Well that was unlucky," said James

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"**

"What?" said Sirius, looking at George, puzzled. The colour from George's face drowned.

"Fred's my twin, we were completely identical,"

"Really? That is so cool, you should've brought him here as well, do you realize just how amazing it would have been?" said Sirius

George hesitated for a moment, and then went on to telling them "He died during the battle of Hogwarts, many people died then."

There was silence between them for a couple of moments, the only sounds coming from the first and second years that were running around, playing a game of tag, but even that seemed to drown away. George had tried to think as little as he could about his twin, ever since he'd gotten here, mostly because of new hope that what he's doing now will mean that he'll be there when he gets back.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't exactly want to you know, say it like that" said Sirius "But hopefully he'll be there when you get back, I'm sure we'll succeed, after all McGonagall trusts us to."

"Yeah, of course," George sighed, he didn't look too well now. "Anyways, this next part is really amazing, after all, I'm in it,"

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone - but how had he done it?**

"We did that a lot, since there was almost no way to tell us apart, so sometimes we would tease our mother like that, it was amazing" said George

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there - and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere. There was nothing else for it.**

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

**"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

"Dude, how many siblings do you have?" asked Sirius

"People tend to get confused a lot, there were seven of us, and the girl that was mentioned earlier is our only sister," said George

"Wow, that sounds great, I think it would be great to have so many siblings," said Remus

"Sometimes it's great but of course it has its ups and downs" said George, and his seemed to be lifting.

**"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is - the thing is, I don't know how to-"**

**"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded. "Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

**"Er - okay," said Harry.**

"He doesn't seem to be too sure about that" said James

"That's because muggles don't usually run up to walls expecting to go through them, actually, in the muggle world, that is known as mentally disoriented" said Lily

"Well that explains a lot then," said James "That's why those two muggles were staring at me in my first year"

"You know muggles are not supposed to see us, you should have waited until they were looking in another direction" said Lily

"The train was leaving in two minutes, I was in a hurry," said James

"Oh fine, but you really should be more careful around muggles" said Lily

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid. He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the cart was out of control- he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash –**

"There won't be a crash" said Lily with a smile on her face

**It didn't come... he kept on running... he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it.**

Sirius started clapping, then the rest joined in and a cheer broke out, they all then started to laugh.

"Well, that has got to be one great achievement for Harry, managing to run through a wall" said Sirius

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.**

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

"That's Neville Longbottom," said George "In the beginning, he's a complete, well you'll see what he's like but he turns into a really cool guy by the end"

"Longbottom? You mean like Frank Logbottom, he graduated two years ago, from Hogwarts right?" said Remus

"Yeah, that's him, and Alice as well" said George "They're his parents, they also have quite a tragic story, but I won't spoil it."

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh. **

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd. "Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

"And that, is our best friend, Lee Jordan, he's an amazing guy. I remember, that year, he brought a tarantula as a pet, the thing was huge, and everyone was dying to see it," said George

"That is so cool, I always wanted a tarantula, but that is the one thing my father said there's absolutely no way, he'll get me one" said James

"You do know you're starting to sound a bit like Dudley now," said Lily

"But at least I'm not a complete idiot,"

"Not a complete, idiot" said Lily, James seemed confused for a moment, then continued reading.

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg. Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

"Oh poor kid, you should have helped him, George !" said Lily

"Wait for it..."said George, while looking at James who continued reading.

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.**

"Well, it could have been your brother," said Lily

"Wait for it, again..." said George

**"Yes, please," Harry panted. "Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

"Fine, well thanks for being nice to Harry," said Lily

"No problem, the kid is bloody awesome, and he helped us a lot as well, especially after his fourth year," said George

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. "What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

"You had to be just like everyone else, right?" said Lily

"Well, we've been hearing stories about him defeating Voldemort ever since we were three, of course we would be amazed to actually meet him, and help him lift his trunk,"

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you**

**"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry. "What?" said Harry.**

**"Harry Potter, "chorused the twins.**

"I bet you miss doing that, I myself would love to have someone identical to me, imagine just how many things we would be able to do, and the pranks, oh merlin," said James

"I know... I know, just the number of such things that we did throughout the years..." said George

**"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."**

Everyone started laughing, "He's tired of that happening, and he's only just spent like two days in the Wizarding world," said Lily

"Yeah, he really hated being famous and everything, but mostly, he hated his scar," said George

"Well, I can surely see why," said Sirius

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

"Why would you do that, you were scaring him," Lily sighed "And I thought you would've been more reassuring to him"

"Oh, believe me, Harry is not someone who needs reassurance," said George

"Well he's also not someone who needs to be gawked at," said Lily

**"Fred? George? Are you there?" "Coming, Mom."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

"Eavesdropping again, not exactly trustable Harry," said George "Just kidding, I guess he was only like that in the beginning after living for so long with muggles,"

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?"said George

**"Mom - geroff" He wriggled free.**

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

Everyone laughed, then Lily said "I'm surprised you cna remember so much of what happened that day,"

"It all just sort of comes back, the more I think about it," said George with a grin on his face

**"Shut up," said Ron.**

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother. "He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

"He's a prefect!" said Lily"

"Yeah, he was going around showing off his badge ever since the very first day he got it, it was so annoying, and even worse after he became head boy," said George

"Yeah, I know a few other people who did that as well," said Sirius looking at Remus and James

**"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves -"**

"Here it goes again, a whole month of that, do you have just any idea how frustrating it gets?" said George "We usually let that frustration out by annoying him even more"

**"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

**"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once -"**

"Or twice" said George at the same time as James

**"Or twice -" "A minute -" "All summer -" **

Everyone started laughing again, then Remus said "I guess it was quite a deal living with you two in the same house,"

"Oh, you have no idea" said George

**"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

**"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins. "Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term - send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins. "Now, you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or -"**

"You've blown up a Hogwarts toilet?" asked Sirius with an air of great surprise.

"No, we didn't, but we had a couple of great plans to do so," said George

"Well then we should do it now," said James

"Don't you dare!" shouted Lily "James Potter, you're head boy, you're not supposed to be going around blowing up toilets, you're supposed to be stopping such acts!"

"Fine, fine, I won't, calm down" said James, but winked the moment Lily turned around

**"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mom." **

**"It's not funny. And look after Ron."**

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

**"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

**"Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

**"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Harry Potter!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice.**

**"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, eh please..." "You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

"See? Your mother told you the same thing, just leave him alone, I bet everyone else does that anyways, why do you have to do it as well?" said Lily

"Because, then if everyone does it, we would be taken as no one, and that, is most definitely not what we are." Said George

**"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there - like lightning."**

**"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

"I didn't notice that, but he really was polite, well at least he has some manners," said Lily

**"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

"Are you serious?!"Lily was shouting "Don't even dare ask him that! He needs no reminding of that, especially not on hid first day of school!"

"Wow, that's exactly what our mother said," said George

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.**

**"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

**"All right, keep your hair on." A whistle sounded.**

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.**

"That's what happened with Tuney, though at least your sister will get to go to Hogwarts, I still feel really bad for her, because only I got a Hogwarts letter" said Lily

"Come on now, not everyone has this luck, it was misfortune, there's no need to blame yourself for it," said James

"I wasn't blaming myself, I just wish she could have gotten one as well, maybe then, after we died she would have been nicer to Harry"

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls." "We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." "George!"**

**"Only joking, Mom."**

Everyone started laughing again, "You should have actually done that, I bet your sister would have died laughing, but even better than that, imagine your mother's face" said Sirius, and then started laughing again.

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.**

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.**

"Much better" said Remus

"A million times better" said James

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full.**

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

**"Hey, Ron."**

**The twins were back.**

"That sounds so evil, like the twins are back, and they're here for more" said Sirius

"That could be a cool book, or even better movie, 'The twins are back'" said James

"But there should be a prequel to that, like 'The twins are here', and then 'The twins are back'" said George, and they all started laughing.

**"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

**"Right," mumbled Ron.**

**"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then.**

**"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

**"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out. Harry nodded.**

"Seriously? I wish people would stop asking that!" said Lily

"You can keep on wishing, but they won't stop," said George

**"Oh -well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said**

**Ron. "And have you really got - you know..."**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead. **

"Why? Just why? Can't you just let him be, alright he has a scar, why does everyone have to be like that?" said Lily

"Just leave it, that's just what people are like" said James

"But, Harry..." Lily sighed

"I know, I hate it as well, but there's nothing we can do," said James, and continued reading

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. "So that's where You-Know-Who**

**"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it." "Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

**"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

**"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

"At least he realized it, after a few moments, maybe this kid is not that bad," said Lily

"This is the kid who becamse his best friend, so no, he really isn't that bad," said george

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

**"Er - Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"I've only met him once, when I was like five, and he was hardly ever mentioned ever since, maybe mum doesn't really like him, or he's just really boring," said George

**"So you must know loads of magic already."**

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?" "Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

"Five" said George

**"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."**

"I've never thought of it like that, Ron really did get all the hard stuff" said George

"I'm really sorry for him, but you said he'll be Harry's best friend, so he'll be known as something as well, he'll be the best friend of someone as famous as Harry," said James

"Yeah, that's right, and believe me he did do as well as the others, he might have actually been better," said George

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.**

"Oh, not him again," said George

"What? A rat? What's so bad about a rat," asked Lily

"Nothing, nothing, It's a long story, and you'll find out about it in the third book," said George

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

"Well I can imagine, with 7 children it's hard getting them all these things" said Sirius

"It really was, mum and dad had a hard time, but then the older ones left, and so did we, in our 7th year, so it got better," said George

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

"He's such an unselfish kid, I guess there was something good that came out of him living with the Dursleys,' said Lily

"Yeah, I bet if he'd grown up with James he would have been almost like Dudley," said Sirius

"Come on Padfoot, you can't be serious, I would've never let him get as bad as Dudley," said James

"I don't think he would have been that bad if he'd grown up with us, maybe just a bit over obsessed with Quiditch, but nothing more than that," said Lily

"You definitely got the Quiditch part right," said Remus

"Yeah, I agree with the others, sorry Sirius but I don't think they're such bad parents,"said George

"Come on guys, chill, I was just joking," said Sirius

**"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort"**

**Ron gasped. "What?" said Harry.**

**"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people -"**

**"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

"He can't be, first of all everyone takes it from the beginning at Hogwarts, and second of all, I bet there's other muggleborns in his class as well, who haven't known anything about the Wizarding world until very recently," said Remus

**"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough.**

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past. **

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

"The candy cart!" exclaimed both James and Sirius at once.

"I think they shouldn't have just sweets on that cart, they should have other things as well that are healthier, after all it's a train full of children, without their parents, that can get really out of hand," said Lily "The two of you, here are a great example of that."

"It's just a whole load of sweets, and anyways it's only twice a year, so it's not such a bad thing," said Sirius

"Yeah, perhaps it's not, but still, kids on a train and sweets, that does not seem like a good combination," said Lily

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.**

**He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry **

"What are mars bars?" asked James

"They're muggle candy, " explained Lily "They're amazing"

"Well, whatever they are, the candy cart definitely has none of," said Sirius

**- but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

"That's what we get every year as well," said Sirius "He's definitely a lot more like his father than I thought,"

"Though, this year, I think we may have gotten too little chocolate frogs, they're all already over and the Hogsmeade visit is in two weeks" said James

"I know, right? I was just thinking about the same thing, I mean how are we going to survive two entire weeks, without any chocolate frogs," said Sirius

"I have an idea," said James

"Does your idea include a certain passageway?" asked Sirius

"Straight into Honeydukes," said James

"Wait? Are you two planning on going out of Hogwarts grounds? You know that's against the rules! James, how many times do I have to remind you that you're head boy?!" said Lily angrily

"We're not technically going out of Hogwarts grounds," said Sirius

"So it's absolutely legal to do so," said James, with a grin on his face.

"James Potter and Sirius Black, I forbid you to do something as stupid as that!" shouted Lily

"Wow, calm down, you're starting to sound like McGonagall," said Sirius

"And you can come as well, you know, to keep an eye on us and make sure we don't do anything reckless," said James

"Oh fine," said Lily "Just go on reading."

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

**"Hungry, are you?"**

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

"She must've swapped them around, because I got the cheese sandwich that day," said George

**"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on -" "You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

"I can imagine, I bet it's a complete chaos getting all five of you ready on time," said Lily

"Yeah, she did have quite a hard time, getting us all in order" said George

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

**"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa." "What?"**

"Oh, naturally he wouldn't know that. Wait, I wonder what happened with my collection of cards after we died, shouldn't Harry have gotten it?" said James "It's one great collection, I've got"

"You were dead! Why would anyone, for even a second think about getting your frog cards to Harry, they had things to do that were a million times better and more useful than your card collection," said Lily

"Fine, I was just wondering," said James

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"I have Ptolemy, but I'm also missing Agrippa" said James

"And I have Agrippa, but missing Ptolemy, that is such a cool coincidence," said Sirius

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. **

"Dumbledore!" they all exclaimed at once

**Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

**"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks**

**Harry turned over his card and read: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

"Isn't that a muggle game?" asked Sirius "I've always wondered why Dumbledore would enjoy it, I find it rather confusing,"

"Out of all the things that you could find confusing, it's bowling that you mention?" said Lily

"I don't see a point in throwing a ball at some pins, and knocking them down, just to do that all over again," said Sirius

"I've tried it once, and it's actually quite fun, even though it's a muggle game" said James "And after a while it doesn't seem so confusing anymore, we should all go one day and play"

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared**

**"He's gone!"**

"Of course he's gone, you can't expect him to stay there all day" Said Sirius

"He's never seen a wizard picture, normal muggle pictures don't move, they just stay still," said Lily

"Doesn't that get boring, they should make them move, it's a lot more fun," said Sirius

"They're muggles, they can't make them move, because they can't do magic," said Lily

"Oh that's right, I forgot about that part, after seeing these pictures move all my life, it's kind of weird hearing about pictures that dpn't move" said Sirius

"With you around, I would be surprised if something didn't sound weird" said Lily. Sirius grunted, then James continued reading.

**"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

**"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "weird!" Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. **

"See, Harry's best friend also thinks that's weird," said Sirius

"I think it's normal for wizards to find anything that muggles do weird," said Remus

"Yes, exactly!" said Sirius "Thanks a lot moony"

**Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin.**

"He got Alberic Grunnion!" exclaimed James "I'm also missing him,"

"I have like three of those, I can give you one if you want it," said George

"Really? Thank you so much, mate," said James

**He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.**

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and mar- malade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger- flavored one once."**

"I really did," said George "Worst thing ever, I don't recommend it to anyone"

"I also got one once, but I heard there's worse ones than booger," said Sirius

"If there is, I don't want to try them," said George

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.**

**"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts."**

"That's really unlucky, when the first bean you get is one of the bad flavours," said George

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

"The first one, I ever tried was pepper, I wasn't a great fan of the Every flavour beans since then," said Lily

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

**"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"Yeah, that's Neville again" said George "I don't think I've ever seen anyone lose their pet as much as this guy."

"They should help him look for it," said Lily

**"He'll turn up," said Harry.**

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..." He left.**

**"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

"And of course, they didn't go and help," said Lily

"You can't expect them to be nice all the time" said James

"Yeah, but still, the kid lost his pet," said Lily

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

**"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."**

"I can't believe he actually tried that spell," said George "We were only making fun of him when we gave it to him,"

"Really? What did you do?" asked Sirius

"Well we just gave him a "spell" that he could try out on his rat to make him more exciting," said George "But it wasn't actually a real spell, it didn't even sound like one, so we never thought it would work on Ron, but apparently it did,"

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.**

**"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway**

"Well, not even my wand's gotten in such a bad state," said Sirius "I bet that's one really old wand"

"It's actually not, but Charlie didn't take much care of his wand," said George

**He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

**"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

"That is Hermione, she's the smartest in their year," said George "She actually got really hot by the end."

"She doesn't seem too nice, judging by Harry's description," said Sirius

"In the beginning they really didn't like her, but they would've never survived if it weren't for Hermione," said George

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**"Er - all right."**

**He cleared his throat.**

**"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

"Now I see what you meant by 'not a real spell'" said Sirius "I can't believe you actually got him, with that one"

"I told you already, I was also surprised that it worked," said George

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.**

**"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you.**

"All the course books by heart? Not even I did that, I just went through them really fast," said Lily

"She sounds crazy, if you ask me," said Sirius

"She was a bit crazy, in her first year, but I told you, she was really amazing by the end," said George

**She said all this very fast.**

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

"Nobody that's in some way normal does that" said Sirius

"I don't think I've ever met anyone to have learned all the course books by heart" said Remus "That actually is quite impressive."

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered. "Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.**

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; **

"Well, I'm starting to like her a bit, she at least has some common sense" said James

**I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.**

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

"You guessed right," said George

**"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

**"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

"Ron's too stupid to ever be in Ravenclaw, and I don't even see how there's a chance of him being evil enough to be in Slytherin," said George

"You know everyone's nervous before the sorting," said Lily "And nobody really knows what house they'll be in until they get there"

"Yeah, but still Ron, in Ravenclaw or Skytherin, there's not even a chance of that," said George

**"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

**"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed. "You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"**

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school. "Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron.**

'Your brother studies dragons? That is so cool, I also want to do that," said Sirius

"Well, in order to do that, you need to actually study, which is something I've hardly ever seen you do," said Lily

"Yeah, you're right, I should go for something more realistic," said Sirius "Like staring at dragons, or riding them." Lily sighed, probably deciding to give up on Sirius.

**"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

**Harry stared.**

**"Really? What happened to them?"**

**"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

"Someone broke into Gringotts and got away? That's never happened before, I didn't even think that was possible," said Lily

"I know, and as you can see everyone was absolutely mad about it, well some people at least." Said George

"I wonder who did it, and most of all, what they were after," said Remus

"You'll see later on," said George

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You- Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked. "Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.**

**"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded.**

"I'm guessing that is exactly what I'm like everytime I hear that my son doesn't know what Quiditch is," said James

"Or worse," said Sirius

"Or worse," agreed James

**"Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world -" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money.**

"Thank god there's someone who knows Quiditch that can explain all that to Harry in a proper way," said James

**He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

**"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

"More staring at Harry's scar" said Lily

"It's his life now, there's no way he can avoid it," said Remus

**"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

"I'm guessing that's the whole point, to seem as ferocious as possible," said George

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigget. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

**"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

"That is so mean, why would he ever say such a thing?" asked Lily

"Because he's a Malfoy, and he thinks that because his father is a governor of the school board, he owns the place,' said George

"I hate all these kids who think they own the place just because their parents have influential jobs," said James

"Spoiled brat" spat Lily

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

**"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

"oooh, burn" said both James and Sirius at once

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

**"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you." Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

"That's right, finish him off Harry" said James

"He's asking for it, " said Sirius

**"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair. "Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

**"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"Those kids were huge, for first years, no wonder Malfoy kept them around him" said George

"I bet that Draco kid would be nothing without his two "friends"" said Lily

**"But we don't feet like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron - Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell. Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle**

"I knew that rat wasn't completely worthless, after all" said George

"I'm guessing that rat is smarter than you thought he was," said Lily

"Nah, he may have been heroic now but he's still a piece of rubbish," said George

**- Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbets finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"Oh, not her again, why can't she just keep to her own business?" said Sirius

"Come on, she's not that bad, just really curious," said Lily

"Really? Curious is what you came up with?" asked Sirius

"I think it curiosity can be mixed up with craziness, and the result is this Granger girl," said James

**"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep-"**

**And so he had.**

Everyone started laughing, then Remus said "Now I see what you meant when you said that he's still a piece of rubbish."

**"You've met Malfoy before?"**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

**"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

**"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

"Add bossy and annoying to the list," said Sirius

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down. He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.**

"Well, Bill was quite a lot shorter than Ron in his first year, I bet mine, or Fred's robes would have been better for him, but Bill's were definitely in a better condition than ours." Said George

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

"I'm actually kind of sorry for the person who's in charge of the luggage, I bet it gets quite confusing sometimes" said Remus

"Yeah, I'm actually wondering how they get all the luggage sorted out, and to the school," said Lily

"Well thankfully that's not your job, so you don't have to worry about it," said George

"I was just curious how they did it," said Lily

"Hermione was also curious" said Sirius

"And she seems like quite a nice girl," said Lily

"Yeah right," said James, sarcastically.

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

**"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

**"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

"That was the most amazing moment of my entire life, I don't think I've ever seen anything that beautiful, before" said Lily

"Same with me, Hogwarts is really incredible when you see it for the first time," said James

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

**"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"**

"When I got onto the boat, I thought we would have to be rowing to the castle," said Lily

"When I got on the boat I was so nervous about the sorting that I threw Fred in the water, to take my mind off things," said George

"Well isn't that such a great thing to do," said Lily, unimpressed

"I don't there was ever a year when no first year ended up in the water," said James

"Yeah, remember, you guys dared me to jump in the water, was I the only one who ended up in the water? I really can't remember," said Sirius

"No there was that kid who ended up in Hufflepuff, he actually started crying because another boy in his boat pushed him into the water," said James

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

"When you read about what it's like to go with the boats it sound so thrilling and everything, and getting off in an underground harbour seems like a freaky thing, when in reality you're so lost with seeing the castle and how pretty everything around is, that you forget all about any other feelings," said Lily

"I don't know why, but that sounded so nice," said James

"I think I might know why it sounded so nice to you," said Sirius "It sounded very educational, if you ask me."

"Well, no one asked you," said Lily

**"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

**"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.**

**"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

"That's it" said James.

"What? No way, alright we have to continue reading, we have to find out what happens!" said Lily

"She's so excited, and this isn't even one of the exciting parts, like they just walked into the school, it's not like they met a huge three headed monster," said Sirius, then George chuckled, already knowing about their adventure with Fluffy.

Thank you guys for reading, I hope you liked it, I'll update the next chapter as soon as possible, but until then, please review


	8. Chapter 7: The sorting hat

Hi guys, so here's the next chapter, I hope you like it. I don't own any of the characters or any of the bolded text. Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 8

"All right then, who wants to read next ?" asked James

"I will," said Lily, then James passed her the book.

**CHAPTER SEVEN THE SORTING HAT**

**The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.**

"McGonagall!" said Sirius.

"Well he got that last part right, I would rather be caught by any eacher but her," said James

"But you must admit, she loves us, and no matter how much detention she gives us, we'll always be her favourite students," said Sirius

"Of course we will, how could anyone else overcome us?" said James

**"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."**

**She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.**

"When I first entered the great hall I couldn't believe that I would be spending the next 7 years of my life in that place, and here I am in the last of these seven years," said Lily

"I can't believe it all passed so quickly," said Sirius "Only a couple of months left and we'll be out of here for good."

"I'll miss this place, I would wish to stay here longer, if it weren't for all the studying and the homework and everything," said James

**They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.**

"I don't think I was ever as nervous as I was on the day of the sorting, except for maybe during exam week," said Remus

"There is just so much tension in that chamber every single year, I'm surprised no first year has ever been sick," said James

"Actually there was a girl this year who fainted right before McGonagall came to lead them into the Great Hall, but she came back to her senses in time for the sorting," said Lily

**"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.**

**"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.**

"I just thought of something," said Sirius

"Well that's a surprise," said Lily

"Oh shut up, just imagine if the four founders didn't have such cool last names, we would just be like, I'm in Gryffindor, what house are you in," said Sirius, than with a low pitched voice continued "Oh, you know, I'm in Smith."

They all burst out laughing, and then James said "That could be instead of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw could be Pond, Slytherin could be Jackson"

"And then Gryffindor would be even better than it already is," said James "And I thought it couldn't get better."

"Well, it can't because all four founders had amazing last names," said Lily, and continued reading.

**"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."**

**Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.**

"Yeah, sorry son, but that's not going to work, you have no idea just how many times I've tried flattening it, nothing ever worked," said James

**"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly." She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.**

**"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron. "Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."**

"You guys were so mean to him, as if the tension of which house they'll be sorted in wasn't enough, you had to scare him even more," said Lily

"We wouldn't be the Weasley twins, if we hadn't done that, after all, it is what we're famous for," said George

"And you should never give up the title of prankster once you've gotten it, therefore they must always behave like that," said Sirius

**Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet - what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue. **

"I wonder what that teacher did, to make him that angry," said James

"I turned my mother's hair green once, when she was yelling at me for a Gryffindor poster that I put up in my bedroom," said Sirius

"That is one way to annoy her," said James "why would she get so fed up about that, it was just house glory," said James

"You know my mother, there's no need to even ask questions like that," said Sirius

**He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom. Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air - several people behind him screamed.**

**"What the -?"**

"The ghosts," said Remus

"Oh, right, they do that every year, to freak out the first years, since most of them have never seen a ghost before," said James

**He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"**

"I'm guessing they're talking about Peeves," said Sirius "He's not that bad, the things he does are actually really funny."

"Yeah, until you're the one that getting hit in the head with a vase," said Lily

"Oh yeah, I remember when that happened to you," said James

"That must've been one of Peeves best," said Sirius "It would've been better if the vase was ceramic or something, since it was full of water anyways, just imagine how much better it would've been if it had broken when it hit her head." Lily through a cone at him, which hit him right in the nose.

"You can't say you didn't deserve that," said Remus as Sirius groaned, and rubbed his nose.

"You know, I liked it more inside, at least there, the only things she could through at me were stuff like sweets," said Sirius

"Well, I wouldn't have to throw anything at you if you were just a bit nicer," said Lily

"Sirius? Nice? Those two words don't go together in the same sentence," said James

**"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"**

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. Nobody answered.**

**"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"**

**A few people nodded mutely.**

**"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."**

**"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."**

**Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.**

**"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."**

**Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.**

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.**

"I actually didn't even notice the candles when I first came in," said Lily "I guess I was just too occupied with staring at well, everything in the Great Hall, but mostly the ceiling."

"Yeah, I was also quite amazed to see, well you can't really see it, I wonder what the ceiling actually looks like it," said James

"Why would you want to know what the ceiling looks like? That just sounds really lame," said Sirius

"I wonder how they came up with the idea to enchant the ceiling like that," said George

"Well, if you would have read Hogwarts a History, you would know," said Lily

"That obviously means you've read it, can't you just tell us?" asked Sirius

"No, because you have to read it for yourself," said Lily

"Oh come on, why is it so hard to tell us?" asked George

"I think it's obvious, she's trying to get you really frustrated about it, so that you'll read Hogwarts a History and find out," said Remus

"Well, I'm already reading these books about Harry, and that is a lot more than I was planning on doing this year," said Sirius

Lily sighed "Never mind, you're a hopeless case, let's just go on reading,"

**These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.**

**Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."**

"I can't believe she read Hogwarts a History, before she even got to Hogwarts," said Lily

"Yeah, well, I can't believe it either, I mean why would anyone ever read it, let alone before you actually go to school," said Sirius

"That's not what I meant, it's quite a hard and long book, I don't think I would have been able to read it when I was eleven," said Lily

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens. Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

"I wonder if Dumbledore or anyone else has ever tried washing it," said James

"I don't think the hat would let them wash it, I bet it would just start screaming until they put it back in its place," said Sirius

**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing**

James, Sirius and George started laughing, then Lily said "It's actually not that funny, he didn't know what magic consisted of, and in the muggle world, pulling a bunny out of a hat is considered a magic trick," said Lily

"Only that magic isn't a trick," said Sirius

"But that's the only sort of magic Harry had heard of until then, that was actually known to be possible amongst muggles, of course that is because it's only tricks and there is no actual magic involved," said Remus

**- noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing:**

"I even forgot about the song," said James "I want to find out faster what house Harry will be put in."

"I think it's pretty obvious by now that he's a Gryffindor," said Sirius

**"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**

**But don't judge on what you see,**

**I'll eat myself if you can find**

**A smarter hat than me.**

**You can keep your bowlers black,**

**Your top hats sleek and tall,**

**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**

**And I can cap them all.**

**There's nothing hidden in your head**

**The Sorting Hat can't see,**

**So try me on and I will tell you**

**Where you ought to be.**

**You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart,**

**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;**

The boys all joined in with singing the line about Gryffindor.

**You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal,**

**Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil; **

**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**

**if you've a ready mind,**

**Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind;**

**Or perhaps in Slytherin**

**You'll make your real friends, **

**Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends.**

**So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap!**

**You're in safe hands (though I have none) For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

**"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

"First of all, that's absolutely absurd, and second of all, Dumbledore would never make the students do something that could put them in danger," said Lily

"But I must admit, it was one great prank," said Sirius

"And even better that you made it sound so convincing he actually thought he would have to wrestle a troll," said James

"Just a small part of the Weasley Twins Epicness," said George

**Harry. smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. **

"We all wished that, but it never happened," said James

"And the moment I became a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin was seen by everyone," said Sirius

"Come on dude, let it go... Lion pride!" said James

**The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.**

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

**"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"**

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause -**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.**

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

**"Bones, Susan!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

**"Boot, Terry!" "RAVENCLAW!"**

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

**" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.**

"Doesn't this remind you of your first day, Evans?" asked Sirius

"Oh, shut up, and don't call me Evans!" said Lily with an angry tone

**"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. He was starting to feel definitely sick now.**

"It's not just his imagination, they all look really freaky, thank god I wasn't put in that house," said Sirius

"Don't worry, there's no way the hat is going to put him in Slytherin," said James

**He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.**

"I've added one more word to describe Dudley to the list, 'bully'" said Lily

"I thought it was obvious that that word was already on the list," said James

**"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" "HUFFLEPUFF!"**

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

**"Granger, Hermione!"**

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.**

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?**

"He sometimes get these really pessimistic thoughts, doesn't he?" asked Sirius

"Yeah, he does, but only sometimes and they're all really stupid, like this one for example," said George

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

"How did he actually get into Gryffindor?" asked Sirius "The guy's a hard core Hufflepuff"

" Well, obviously he isn't, if the hat put him in Gryffindor," said Remus

"In the beginning, well you already know what he's like but he gets really awesome by the end," said George

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"**

"Obviously," said James

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!"**

"The moment has finally come!" shouted James

"I don't see why you're so excited, it's not like he'll be put in Slytherin or anything," said Sirius

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.**

**"Potter, did she say?" The Harry Potter?"**

**The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

**Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"**

"Isn't it obvious? GRYFFINDOR!" said James

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**

"That's a good thing to do, I heard the hat also takes in consideration your choice," said Lily

**"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that**

"WHAT?" screamed both James and Sirius "NO!"

"Come on, Slytherin's not that bad," said lIly

"You're only saying that because that Snape boy's in it," said Sirius

"No I'm not, I'm only saying that because there's many great people in Slytherin," said Lily

"And then there's the rest 98% of their house," said James "Come on Lils, they all suck"

"No they don't, oh never mind, there's no point arguing," said Lily

**- no? Well, if you're sure**

**- better be GRYFFINDOR!"**

Everyone started cheering and clapping, then James said "I knew my son could never be a Slytherin!"

"But it's kind of strange that the hat considered Slytherin quite a lot," said Remus

"I wonder why?" said Sirius "Harry definitely doesn't seem like the Slytherin sort of person,"

"I think there might be a small part of him that could be a Slytherin" said George "But I think he got rid of that part by the time he got out of Hogwarts."

**Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"**

"At least he got a really warm welcome to the Gryffindor house, even though it was just because he was famous," said Lily

"It wasn't just because he was famous, the kid defeated the most feared wizard in the world when he was only a baby, I bet everyone was scared that if they didn't welcome him there nicely, he would justv kill them like he did with Voldemort," said George

"So he did kill him?" asked Sirius

"I said that he defeated him," said George

"Actually I'm pretty sure you... Never mind," said Lily

**Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.**

"I hate it when ghosts touch me," said Lily

"It's even worse when one flies through you," said Sirius

"Yeah, that is one experience I never want to try again," said James

**He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.**

"I don't think there was ever a time when Professor Quirell didn't look peculiar," said George

**And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"**

**Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.**

**"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley Pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.**

"And they were like an hour ago, I know how you feel, it happened to me to, I was so nervous about the sorting that by the time everyone else was sorted into their house, I was starving," said Sirius

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

"I don't think anything can please him more than seeing all of his students happy and safe," said James

"And don't forget fed, never forget fed," said Sirius

"He's such a nice and amazing man," said Lily

"It weird that by the way he was speaking in the first chapter, I think he thinks that way about the two of you as well," said Sirius

"Not just the two of them, the whole four of you actually," said George

"Well it would be nice if I was even mentioned in this book at all, but no, let's all forget about Remus until Harry's third year," said Remus

"But from then on you get to have one hell of a time," said George "So in a way it's good, because you're waiting and it will all pay off."

"And that did not sound like you talking, at all," said Sirius

"I was trying to be nice, it's not exactly something I'm amazing at," said George

**"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!**

"I never actually understood that, but I definitely like the fact that he just lets us eat and doesn't go on for hours about the new school year and everything," said Sirius

"I think we all love that about him," said James

**"Thank you!"**

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.**

**"Is he - a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.**

**"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"**

"I don't think mad is exactly the word for him," said Lily

"Yeah, more like bonkers," said Sirius

"No, I mean he's the good sort of mad like, not really mad, mad," said Lily

"Yeah I think we all know what you mean," said James

**Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.**

"I never really knew the point of those either," said Lily

"I guess they're just for decorations or something," said James

"Well, if they are, they're some tasty decorations,' said Sirius

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.**

"The Hogwarts house elves know how to cook better than any other house elves," said Sirius

**"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak,**

**"Can't you -?"**

"Oh Harry, you can't just ask people or ghosts whether they can eat," said Lily

"I also asked Nearly Headless Nick if he could eat," said James

"Well you and Sirius are both exceptions, and don't count as normalities," said Lily

"That has got to be nicest thing she's ever said about me, thank you, Evans," said Sirius

"Don't call me Evans!" shouted Lily

"Ok, ok..."said Sirius

**I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've in troduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."**

**"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!"**

**"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy -" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.**

**"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"**

"One more question you shouldn't really be asking ghosts about, especially not Nearly Headless Nick," said Lily

"They're just curios, Nearly Headless Nick is quite fascinating, and he really like to show off, so he probably enjoys answering most of their questions," said James

**Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.**

**"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So - new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable - he's the Slytherin ghost."**

"Six Years?!" asked Sirius and James "How did you not win the house cup for six years?"

"It's really complicated actually, but things get better this year," said George

**Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

"Don't get me wrong, I really like Sir Nicholas but I don't exactly enjoy the presence of ghosts, they're really weird," said Lily

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but the ghosts are really useful when we put our pranks in action, you know with them being able to go through walls and everything," said Sirius

**"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest. "I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.**

"Nearly Headless Nick knows that he shouldn't go around asking such questions," said Lily

"Actually I think he's just scared of the Bloody Baron," said James

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding - "**

"Yes, and it would be really nice if Harry wouldn't have to label every piece of food that was there, I'm getting kind of hungry, we should go get something to eat after this chapter," said Sirius

"Actually we should go to lunch after this chapter," said Lily

"I just remembered something, we have Quditch practice today, after lunch, you guys can come as well," said Sirius, talking to Remus and Lily

"Yeah, I think I'll come," said Remus

"I can't, I'm meeting a few of my friends tonight," said Lily

"Well, that's a shame, anyways, you can come another time, and see me be amazing at Quiditch," said James

"I can do that during your matches," said Lily

**As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.**

**"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."**

**The others laughed.**

**"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.**

**"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all- Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here - they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."**

"Poor kid, his uncle actually dropped him out the window and almost killed him a couple of times just to see whether he was able to do magic?" said Lily "That's just really sad.

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons ("I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult-"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing - ").**

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

"Who's that, doesn't sound like a teacher that we have, are they new?" asked Remus

"I think you'll find out in a moment," said George smirking.

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.**

"What just happened?" asked Lily

"Harry's scar hurt sometimes," said George "I won't say anymore than that."

**"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head. "What is it?" asked Percy.**

**"N-nothing."**

**The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look - a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.**

"He actually hated Harry, we lost a lot of house points because of him, but then again he took house points away from everyone except the Slytherins," said George

**"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy. "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. **

"Snape? You can't be serious, like Severus Snape? He teaches potions at Hogwarts? That's just messed up," said Sirius

"Yeah, he does, and besides teaching potions he hated just about everyone except for thos in his own house," said George

"But of course he hates Harry the most, because of me," said James

"I thought he would be nicer to Harry because of me, but then again I was wrong about many people," said Lily

**He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."**

"I bet he became a death eater, that's why he knows so much about the Dark Arts," said James

"Just another reason, for you to stop getting so close to him," said Sirius, to Lily

"He's a nice person, and I don't think he became a death eater," said Lily

"Come on, everyone knows he'll be a death eater, it's pretty obvious," said Sirius

"Well just so you know, people change, which would be a nice thing in your case," said Lily

**Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again. At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.**

**"Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.**

**"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."**

"He was talking to us," said George "We went into the Dark Forest almost every week in our second year."

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.**

**"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.**

"Now, not even I stick to that rule," said Lily

"It doesn't even make any sense, we're all witches and wizards, in a magical school, and we're not allowed to do magic, come on now, common sense people," said James

**"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

**"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."**

"That is not something you should tell the whole school, especially not with the twins around," said Lily

"I don't know how, but we didn't got there," said George "That's reallt unusual, I guess we were so occupied with our other plans we almost forgot about that corridor," said George

"You could have been killed if you went there, so it's better that you forgot," said Lily

"As if we couldn't get killed by going into the Dark Forest," said George "It is quite hard to get yourself killed."

**Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did. "He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy.**

**"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere - the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."**

**"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.**

"That always ends up being really disastrous," said Lily

"I actually think it sounds great," said George

"That is because you like the sound of disaster," said Lily

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

**"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!" And the school bellowed:**

**"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please,**

The four boys also started singing, each in a different tune, while Lily was just staring as them in disbelief.

**Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling With some interesting stuff,**

**For now they're bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff,**

**So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we've forgot,**

**just do your best, we'll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot.**

After the boys finished with their songs, Lily continued reading.

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

"Seriously, you two were such show offs," said Lily

"Well what else could we be?" asked George with a grin on his face

**"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.**

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.**

"Peeves," said James and Sirius at once

"Who else but our beloved Peeves," said George

**"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves - show yourself"**

**A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.**

"Don't you just love it when Peeves is being rude to prefects, head girls and biys, and teachers?" said Sirius

**"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"**

"And they usually respond with that," said James

"Except for McGongall and Dumbledore, I think Peeves is actually quite scared of them," said George

**There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.**

**"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.**

**"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.**

"Barked..." said George "I really love Harry's explanations of things sometimes."

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.**

"Of course he had to pick on the unluckiest kid there," said Lily

"Well, who else could Peeves pick on than the weakest," said Sirius

**"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."**

"I don't think he should use the word prefects, here, because it's him that nobody actually listens to," said George

"He's your brother!" said Lily

"And he's an idiot!" said George

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.**

**"Password?" she said. "Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it - Neville needed a leg up - and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.**

"Aka the best room in the whole castle" said James

"Well, perhaps after the Great hall," said Sirius

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase - they were obviously in one of the towers - they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.**

**" Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."**

**Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.**

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully - and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it -then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold - there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.**

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd eaten too much," said Sirius

"It happened to me the first year as well," said James "But my nightmare wasn't quite as weird as his."

"Am I the only one who noticed the green light? He dreamed about the night we were killed again," said Lily

"It's really weird that he remembers that," said James

**He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.**

"Well that's definitely better," said James

"That's it," said Lily

"Let's go to lunch then," said Sirius, and they all stood up and headed back to the castle.

* * *

That's it, I'll be writing a bit more about Jily stuff in the next chapter, btw sorry this one was so short, it was like a third of the last one, but the actual chapter was really short. Anyways, I hope you liked it, and keep reviewing


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